Ok, here is the last version of KCKultimateKoH. I can't guarantee it's total without error, there maybe a few slight ... I haven't fully tested it. But it is a very stable version. There will probably be 1 patch - KCKultimateKoH_v2.1. To Find and fix any errors. This will be the last of my Mods for Knights of Honor. If anyone wants to Pick up where I left off or use my mod as a base mod, your more than welcome to. The Texts and Quests certainly can be expanded. I'm Leaving the Previous Version Attempts up , plus my work with CAB files. [For Modding Purposes]

KCKultimateKoH_v2.0a -> BASE DEMO FOR NEW KOH MODDING CONCEPT. [By the end of the summer - All Kingdoms Quests]
This will be the Base Version for any other KCKultimateKoH Mods, so it maybe as large as 25 MBs. It will Contain Everything I've Done and More. [Except expanded Intros] But, all new versions of KCKultimateKoH_v2.0a will be batched patches through KCKpatchKoH_v2.9z. Hopefully by version 3 we will have pack support !?!

I'm pushing back the date to the end of the summer possibly, to make more changes. I'm just ain't in the modding mood right now! More Pagan Kingdoms will be added. I'll add the Quests and Cheat Command Info to the Royal Library. Definite UI Changes will occur. Possibly some Fortification, Noble Pict Changes and Unit Changes. More Info Later ...

Added back deleted SP units for MP. Sorry! But, now I can look into adding other quick battles, historical and multiplayer maps ... Added Temple and Stonehenge for Pagans as a Church and Cathedral equivalent. Pagans can Build only Temples, but inherit Churches and Mosques. They can also be Upgraded to Cathedrals and Holy Mosques. Added Cheat Commands, Kingdom Quests, and Text Codes to Royal library. Added more Fortification Bonuses. Added a slightly edited Voice Pack. Created all new Kingdom Quests on top of the few originals, then added kingdom quests for all kingdoms early, high & late. I did not change times, it was to much trouble after all this work. I can always flip quests later or create another age. All preceding KCKultimateKoH_v2+ will be smaller patch upgrades.

For More Info See Here ->
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=9260111&postcount=4

This maybe be my last KoH Mod, I may start trying to develop my own games now!

KCKultimateKoH_v1a-f
Game is much tougher now, No more waiting to build good units, AI can no longer use peasant militas.Rebels are much tougher now. Prepare troops for any early War with a 5 city-state Kingdom. Clerk, Builder & Landlord abilities Doubled. Building Upgrades, meaning more Slots in City Build Queue !! PLUS! 37 Individual Unite Event Quests, for 1 or 2 kingdom states, except Portugal (high & late periods) & Trezibond (high period). No 3+ realm kingdoms, except Russia (early period) & Scandia (all periods).

REMEMBER SAVE OFTEN. Beware of early wars with 5+ city states. Build basic improvements first. Use cheaper units to defend, while you upgrade to better units you can attack with.

As soon as you have started a new game, press the pause-key quickly, and while still paused ... View the kingdom cities and assign & or hire 2 or 3 merchants. Assign & or hire 1 or 2 clerks & spies. Plant spy (enemy), Clerk to Govern, chose distant trade partners, break close alliances, if possible. STARTS VARY depending on friends, foes & trading partners and their relative size, disposition and distance from you. Build cheap cities structures early. Prepare troops for any early War with a 5 city-state Kingdom. Shoot for the closet cities, get horses, find trade goods (WWI), get kingdom advantages (WWII), To Battle & Victory! BSNOREBELS, if you dare all now 2WW3!

Changed the Difficulty Levels, AI is about as tough as it can get! Cut Most Military Unit BLDG Costs in Half. Re-Ordered Unit Costs to Trick AI into building better UNITS (AI responds much better now!). The cheapest units cost more gold & food, better more expensive units cost less for food & gold, military unit buildings are cheaper and can be built more quickly. Eliminated swordsmen & spearmen replaced them with (various units) & halberdiers. Eliminated archers replaced them with heavy archers. You now start game with axemen & heavy archers.

Altered Rebels, 2 Rebels per Kingdom, 1 per Realm, 1 Loyalist 34% of the time and 2 Ordinary Rebel 66% of the time. AI kingdoms are more of a threat than Rebels. Balanced Units for Battleview. Loyalist Rebels, Tweeked Difficulty, As Hard As It Can Get! No Tax on Earnings, AI Income is now just 2X, 3X, 4X's harder. Removed Book Bonus from Armory. Tweeked Unit Squad Size, Morale, Defense & Attrition. Initial GAME STARTS VARY depending on friends, foes & trading partners and their relative size, disposition and distance from you.

Added back Palisades and Stone Walls for Variety. May or May Not Make Game Easier or Harder at times Early, not applicable late. Adjusted build fortification costs and economic\ai_build.in2, buildings.in2 & town templates.ini texts. Allowed Pagans to Build Temples for more Book Production like Churches and Mosques. Added images for pagan temple [Stonehenge] from Cnaeas Religion Mod [3 files in images\screens\PlayWnd\economy\icons\buildings]. Added Texts/economy/buildings.ini changes. Added UI Voices.

[comments]
; May 07, 2011
; Good Search Engine KoH, need to develop one for _DEV_ , To add so to speak "On the Fly" modding, Pacman needs the ability to
; make it's own Pack files of the same Koh format, to run any added files to a pack, like a pk1. Detanking whole packs to run mods is
; archaic, this should be do-able. This would allow KoH to be tanked into mykohmod.pak 's. It'd would be a Great Idea if Tempest could
; do this. I'll attempt it after mapping & _DEV_ . I've tried previously to hack the packs using a hex editor with limited success. So, I
; just added the Kingdom. Quests info instead of the KoH engine searching for it. (Which would be Ideal, Great for Debug & _DEV_ too !)
; May 10, 2011
; Attention Knights of Honor Modders ! I've stumbled upon a revolutional Koh modding concept, that'll change the way mods are packed.
; I noticed that LZX compressed cabs for defs, and Texts can be read and be run outside of the pack folder and can be substitued for
; packs. This makes any conventional modding not limited to just what can be tanked and untanked. But, totally new and separate
; messages, defs, Texts, and a few other things like searching, possibly even calling more advanced functions and more Robust editors
; and programs for Knights of Honor. This seems to only work outside the pack folder with text based folders and files. I haven't tryed it
; with cabs replacing packs in the pack folder yet. Pictures, Audio and Video need to remain in the pack folders and be attached to a
; pk1 file preferably. It just might, be possible to, substitue the cab for the pk1 file. This would be impressive. Anyways, I'll tell you that
; before KCKultimateKoH_v2a. This version is just a base for later more user friendly mods and interfaces, and eventually development
; tools for Knights of Honor and the some essentials for the Demo.

[I]I've tried to pass variables to text in the Help Library, the program crashed. It is unlikely any variable buildng, DLL calling, or exe hack will be useful. Standard template editing and mapping only possibilities. Map Editor is last possibility. Just exploit whats there better. EOF

TO-DO's: KCKpatchKoH_v2.0d-z Look at re-constructing left out quest-like events. Or Unit Work. Or a little of both. UI plus xtras. Add More Ages? Possibly add Baltic or en[Gog] like map changes?

TO-DO's: KCKmusicKoH_v2.0 - [ADDON] 3 Tracks, 1st 2 are Re-Mixes of the SP & MP Tracks, 3rd Track contains segments of Knights in White Satin (Moody Blues), Oh What a Lucky He Was (ELP), In the Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson), Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd & A Few Others Artists ...

TO-DO's: KCKpatchKoH_v2.1a-z Look at re-constructing left out quest-like events. Or Unit Work. Or a little of both. UI plus xtras. Add More Ages? Possibly add Baltic or en[Gog] like map changes?

MAYBE
Add in Game Unit Entries for Damage, Defense, Morale, Attrition as well as DESCRIPTIONS for Squad Size and Speed.
Possibly ?!? Line up Personalities with Pictures and Voices as close to Possiible ???

EVENTUALLY
Hack Tutorial, Load Ireland Map W/O Tutorial or better yet Modify Map to British Isles.
YES THIS MIGHT BE POSSIBLE - maybe a Monty Python quest for the Holy Grail ?!?
Tutorial could be modified to become a Single Person Singleplayer Scripted Multi-Quest-to-Quest Adventure!

Separate World Maps that spans [I]Europe, Middle East, and the Far East. Possibly Meso-Amer. World map is to Big. Un-necessary

Need new calls from exe or dll api's plus std edit. Tools or Wizards to Editor, maybe, not likely.

KillCarneyKlansmen

Jun 06, 2010, 11:05 PM

Long Description

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Honor_(video_game)

The game takes place in Medieval Europe, spanning the early centuries of the second millennium in three historical time periods. The player can choose to play as one of over 100 playable kingdoms.

Gameplay
Knights of Honor is played on a large map of Europe spanning from Ireland to Georgia and from Scandinavia to the northern coast of Africa. The map is divided into parcels of land called provinces. Each province is governed by a city and contains several "Rural Areas" which can be towns, farms, monasteries and coast towns. These rural areas can't be altered and are placed randomly across the map before each game. The city, however has room for several buildings which can give bonuses to the rural areas or the city itself, such as more piety in the monasteries when a church is built or a higher income from the towns when a market is present in the city. Other buildings are needed to recruit certain units (such as a sword smith for sword-wielding units or a fletcher for bow-wielding units) or to defend the city such as walls and towers. A city only has limited room for buildings. Thus, not all buildings can be built in a city and the player must carefully consider what to build for a particular city. Compared to other strategy games, building structures in KOH takes a rather vast amount of time.

Goal of the Game
The main goal of the game is to become emperor of Europe. However, you are free to do whatever you wish. There is no set time limit whatsoever. There are two ways to eventually accomplish the goal. The first is to conquer everything from Dublin to Antioch. This can be done completely by military power, but there are many other paths to go by, such as inheriting land because you married one of your princesses to the prince whose father died. However, given the fact that it is very hard to watch after an empire as it grows, the player can simply "Claim the Title" if he thinks he's powerful enough to become emperor of Europe. This means that the player will be voted for or against other major powers in Medieval Europe to become the supreme king of Europe. However, if your proposal is shot down rather fast, every major power will declare war on you for attempting to take the Supreme Throne. There is, every certain amount of time, a game induced vote for the throne of Europe, and it is possible to win this without any votes if you own enough provinces, as you vote yourself to the post. Note that it is difficult to seize the throne by war, first one must destroy all the competing kingdoms. View their military power and attack the one with the lowest first, slowly building enough power to kill the final enemy. A more peaceful method of victory involves acquiring all the Kingdom Advantages. To get all of them requires several coastal villages to bring in Rare Goods and subsequently a large kingdom.

There are certain kingdoms which may also expand by conquering and reuniting the core provinces of a larger empire. If you are playing as Kiev, Muscovy, (also Kazan) for example, capturing the provinces of central Russia (Polotsk, Muscovy, Ryazan, Smolensk, Kiev, Chernigov, Novogorod, Tver, Voronezh, Saratov, Vladimir, Kazan) allows you to reunite the empire of Russia. Likewise, Normandy may establish the kingdom of England by capturing the key provinces of Britain (and also destroying the kingdoms of Wessex, York and East Anglia). Once the conditions for forming a new nation have been met you may choose whether or not to change the name of your kingdom; if you do so, your empire receives a one-off gold bonus, as well as receiving a number of bonus provinces. For certain kingdoms, this can offer a very quick way to expand. The flip side, of course, is that neighbouring kingdoms may unite their own nations, and some of the bonus provinces they receive may be territories that are taken away from your kingdom

As soon as you have started a new game, press the pause-key quickly, and while still paused ... View the kingdom cities and assign & or hire 2 or 3 merchants. Assign & or hire 1 or 2 clerks & spies. Plant spy (enemy), Clerk to Govern, chose distant trade partners, break close alliances, if possible. STARTS VARY depending on friends, foes & trading partners and their relative size, disposition and distance from you. Build cheap cities structures early. Prepare troops for any early War with a 5 city-state Kingdom. Shoot for the closet cities, get horses, find trade goods (WWI), get kingdom advantages (WWII), To Battle & Victory !!

bsswitch Switch to selected nation when other nation is contacted (Hi-lited)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
( If you wish to Switch Kingdoms, you need to change the AI Modes, for New kingdom
OFF & Old kingdom ON if you switch permanently, in game. For example, say your spy
succeeds becoming king. You might switch kingdoms permanently, in game. tee-hee : )
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bsai AI on for selected kingdom
bsnoai AI off for selected kingdom

Final Victory
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=254649&stc=1&d=1275888090

Tekee

Jun 13, 2010, 08:14 PM

that is my kind of Serbia :)

Zack

Jun 14, 2010, 02:00 PM

What is this?

Heretic_Cata

Jun 14, 2010, 02:03 PM

http://media.funlol.com/content/img/im-confus.jpg

KillCarneyKlansmen

Aug 10, 2010, 01:53 AM

I haven't been able to effectively populate & yet reduce the size of the audio files for Personalities, Ambients & the UI to a sizeable download yet. So I may just upload version D, in a few weeks. Then start over on the audio portion later, which I wanna finish before I move on to the final E version. The D version should be only about 2 MBs, & the Final Audio should be hopefully less than 12 MBs. Cross Your Fingers. X

KillCarneyKlansmen

Sep 03, 2010, 07:47 PM

Ah Just Bought GalCIV2 Ultimate ED. playing it now. Im Pushing Back the Date for The Audio & Version_E to the End of the Year. Look For some GC2 Mods next Year also .... !!!

Tekee

Sep 07, 2010, 06:12 PM

HAHA, you are so honest!
Ok we will eagerly await your new mod :D
You have already done many great work ;)

KillCarneyKlansmen

Sep 08, 2010, 02:25 AM

Thank-you, I appreciate it! ...

Well here goes KoH II XMAS Wish!
5 Age World and Star Map: Myth, Bronze, Iron, Powder to Modern, Man +Machine (to Unit, Planeted, Space GCII like to'ed)
5 Different Units: Rouges, Rangers, Melee, Good Druid-like, Dark Mage (DS'ed)
3 Different Levels of Gameplay to Level Up in 1st Person, Multi or Team RPG, Strategic Generalship (Civ'ed)
Oh Not Flat Terrain, But From the Mountains and Sky Above to the Hills and the Plains and the Sea Below!

Check out my Posts On History, Religion, Mythology & Cultures!
[There are even a few cited posts from Civfantics - Enceladus the Trumpeter being one! THANX!]

The vikings termed marsh dwellers "kjrr". When their descendants arrived in Britain from Normandy with William the Conqueror the term had become a name with the forms Ker and Kerr, also Carr and Carre.

From Arran on the Celtic West Coast comes a claim that the name is derived from the Gaelic for "strength".

http://www.rampantscotland.com/clans/blclankerr.htm
There is a legend that the Kerrs were frequently left-handed and even constructed the spiral staircases in their castles so that they could take advantage over right-handed swordsmen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Kerr
The great Clan Kerr is well remembered in Scotland as one of the most loyal but warlike Clans of the turbulent Border territories. The Kerrs have typically been associated with left-handedness; some of their buildings, such as Ferniehirst Castle, have been explicitly designed with this in mind.[3] There is an anecdotal link between the Kerrs and left-handedness, although it is unclear whether or not present-day individuals with the surname of Kerr have a higher incidence of left-handedness than the general population. [South Paws]

http://www.stewkerr.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Kerr.htm
There are several Kerr badges. The most common is seen here and shows the crest of the Chief of the Name Kerr (the Marquis of Lothian) inside a strap is engraved the Chief's Motto "SERO SED SERIO" which translates as 'Late but in Earnest' and refers to the Scottish victory over the English at the Battle of Ancrum Moor (1545) at which the Kerr's played a major role.

The Kerr's were generally understood to have come from Norman descent and settled in the Scottish Borders in the 14th Century. There were two great Kerr families in the Borders, descended from two brothers, Ralph and John who settled near Jedburgh in c1330. They were the Kerr's of Cessford (descended from Ralph), the family of the Duke of Roxburghe, and the Kerr's of Ferniehurst (descended from John), now represented by the Marquis of Lothian. The two families were always in conflict with each other.

The Middle March frontier was wide, desolate and criss-crossed by the secret ways of the border reivers (raiders), through the mosses and bogs and twisting passes of Cheviot, the 'high craggy hills' above Teviotdale, and the bleak Northumberland valleys. This was "hot trod" country – the home of the "moss-trooper" and the origin of 'blackmail'. These Kerr's were notoriously left-handed, building the stair-cases in their peel towers anti-clockwise.

The Kerr's were, with the possible exception of the Scott's, the leading tribe of the Scottish Middle March. The Kerr's were one of the most prominent families in the Scottish Middle March, in particular, their rivals were the Scott's, with whom they had a longstanding feud. The Kerr's, apart from differences with other clans, were sometimes at feud with each other; the branches of Cessford and Ferniehurst were frequently rivals for Warden ship of the Scottish Middle March.

It was written of them c.1600 >Irritable and capricious by nature, the Kerr's seem to have been blood-thirsty and arrogant even above their fellows. Whether their leaders were bidding against each other for the warden ship of the Middle March, feuding with their neighbours, or crossing the border to fire the ‘towns’ of Northumberland, they remained an enigma which neither government succeeded in solving. At one moment they would be loyal, charming servants of their king: the next they would be unpredictable bandits.

Thomas Musgrave wrote to Lord Burghley, on the Anglo-Scottish borderers, 1583 "They are a people, that will be Scottishe when they will, and Englishe at their pleasure."

http://www.jedburgh-online.org.uk/clansandfamilies.asp
Two branches of the [Clan Kerr] lived near Jedburgh, the Kers Of Cessford and the Kerrs of Ferniehirst, and a deadly feud existed between them. Both attained high office and both became Warden of the Scottish Middle March. Sir Thomas Kerr of Ferniehirst fought for Mary, Queen of Scots at the Battle of Langside, while Sir Water Ker of Cessford took the side of James VI. The feud was only ended after the Union of the Crowns with the marriage of Anne Ker of Cessford to William Kerr of Ferniehirst.

Coming originally from southern Norway in the 10th C., the family settled in France before coming to Britain with the Normans in 1066 and arriving in Scotland about 100 years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunbar_(1296)
The Battle of Dunbar was the only significant field action in the campaign of 1296. King Edward I of England had invaded Scotland in 1296 to punish King John Balliol for his refusal to support English military action in France. After the sack of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Edward rushed to complete the conquest of Scotland, remained in the town for a month, supervising the strengthening of its defences. On 5 April, he received a message from King John renouncing his homage, to which he remarked, more in contempt than anger, O foolish knave! What folly he commits. If he will not come to us we will go to him."

The next objective in the campaign was the Earl of March's castle at Dunbar, a few miles up the coast from Berwick. March was with the English, but his wife, Marjory Comyn, sister of the Earl of Buchan, did not share her husband's political loyalties and allowed her fellow Scots to occupy the castle. There is little evidence to suggest that Dunbar was anything other than an action between two bodies of mounted men-at-arms (armoured cavalry). The Scots occupied a strong position on some high ground to the west. According to one English source over ten thousand Scots died at the battle of Dunbar, however this is probably a confusion with the casualties incurred at the storming of Berwick.

The battle of Dunbar effectively ended the war of 1296 with the English winning. The remainder of the campaign was little more than a grand mopping-up operation. James, the hereditary High Steward of Scotland, surrendered the important fortress at Roxburgh without attempting a defence, and others were quick to follow his example. Only Edinburgh Castle held out for a week against Edward's siege engines. A Scottish garrison sent out to help King John, who had fled north to Forfar, were told to provide for their own safety. Edward himself, true to his word, advanced into central and northern Scotland in pursuit of King John. Stirling Castle, which guarded the vital passage across the River Forth was deserted save for a janitor who stayed behind to hand the keys to the English.

Dressed for the occasion John was ceremoniously stripped of the vestments of royalty. Antony Bek, the Bishop of Durham, ripped the red and gold arms of Scotland from his surcoat, thus bequeathing to history the nickname Toom Tabard (empty coat) by which John has been known to generations of Scottish schoolchildren. He and his son Edward were sent south into captivity. Soon after, the English king followed, carrying in his train the Stone of Scone and other relics of Scottish nationhood.

Upon rejoining his force Sir William Wallace called the few knights and gentlemen who were with him together, and said to them:

Methinks, gentlemen, that the woes of this contest should not fall upon one side only. Every one of you here are outlawed, and if you are taken by the English will be executed or thrown in prison for life, and your lands and all belonging to you forfeited. It is time that those who fight upon the other side should learn that they too run some risk. Besides leading his vassals in the field against us, Sir John Kerr twice in arms has attacked me, and done his best to slay me or deliver me over to the English. He fell yesterday by my hand at Stirling, and I hereby declare forfeit the land which he held. Sir John Grahame, do you proceed tomorrow with five hundred men and take possession of the hold of the Kerrs. Sir Allan Kerr is still at Stirling, and will not be there to defend it. Like enough the vassals will make no resistance, but will gladly accept the change of masters. The Kerrs have the reputation of being hard lords, and their vassals cannot like being forced to fight against the cause of their country. The hired men-at-arms may resist, but you will know how to make short work of these. I ask you to go rather than Sir Archibald Forbes, because I would not that it were said that he took the Kerr's hold on his private quarrel. When you have captured it he shall take a hundred picked men as a garrison. The place is strong.

"If we conquer, and Scotland is freed, I doubt in no way that the king, whoever he may be, will confirm my grant. If the English win, your land is lost, be it an acre or a county. And now let me be the first to congratulate you on having won by your sword and your patriotism the lands of your father, and on having repaid upon your family's enemies the measure which they meted to you. But you will still have to beware of the Kerrs. They are a powerful family, being connected by marriage with the Comyns of Badenoch, and other noble houses. However, if Scotland win the day the good work that you have done should well outweigh all the influence which they might bring to bear against you.

"And now, Archie, I can, for a time, release you. Ere long Edward's army will be pouring across the Border, and then I shall need every good Scotchman's sword. Till then you had best retire to your new estates, and spend the time in preparing your vassals to follow you in the field, and in putting one or other of your castles in the best state of defence you may. Methinks that the Kerr's hold may more easily be made to withstand a lengthened siege than Glen Cairn, seeing that the latter is commanded by the hill beside it. Kerr's castle, too, is much larger and more strongly fortified. I need no thanks," he continued, as Archie was about to express his warm gratitude; "it is the Warden of Scotland who rewards your services to the country; but Sir William Wallace will not forget how you have twice stood beside him against overwhelming odds, and how yesterday, in Stirling, it was your watchful care and thoughtful precaution which alone saved his life."

Archie's friends all congratulated him warmly, and the next morning, with his own band, he started for Glen Cairn. Here the news that he was once more their lawful chief caused the greatest delight. It was evening when he reached the village, and soon great bonfires blazed in the street, and as the news spread burned up from many an outlying farm. Before night all the vassals of the estate came in, and Glen Cairn and the village was a scene of great enthusiasm. Much as Archie regretted that he could not establish himself in the hold of his father, he felt that Wallace's suggestion was the right one. Glen Cairn was a mere shell, and could in no case be made capable of a prolonged resistance by a powerful force. Whereas, the castle of the Kerrs was very strong. It was a disappointment to his retainers when they heard that he could not at once return among them; but they saw the force of his reasons, and he promised that if Scotland was freed and peace restored, he would again make Glen Cairn habitable, and pass some of his time there.

"Should Scotland be permanently conquered, which may God forfend, it could not, of course, be held; but should we have temporary reverses we might well hold out until our party again gather head." Every man on the estate promised his aid to an extent far beyond that which Archie, as their feudal superior, had a right to demand from them. They had had a hard time under the Kerrs, who had raised all rents, and greatly increased their feudal services. They were sure of good treatment should the Forbeses make good their position as their lords, and were ready to make any sacrifices to aid them to do so.

Next morning a messenger arrived from Sir John Grahame, saying that he had, during the night, stormed Aberfilly, and that with scarce an exception all the vassals of the Kerrs -- when upon his arrival on the previous day they had learned of his purpose in coming, and of the disposition which Wallace had made of the estate -- had accepted the change with delight, and had joined him in the assault upon the castle, which was defended only by thirty men-at-arms. These had all been killed, and Sir John invited Archie to ride over at once and take possession. This he did, and found that the vassals of the estate were all gathered at the castle to welcome him. He was introduced to them by Sir John Grahame, and they received Archie with shouts of enthusiasm, and all swore obedience to him as their feudal lord. Archie promised them to be a kind and lenient chief, to abate any unfair burdens which had been laid upon them, and to respect all their rights.

"But," he said, "just at first I must ask for sacrifices from you. This castle is strong, but it must be made much stronger, and must be capable of standing a continued siege in case temporary reverses should enable the English to endeavour to retake it for their friend, Sir Allan Kerr. My vassals at Glen Cairn have promised an aid far beyond that which I can command, and I trust that you also will extend your time of feudal service, and promise you a relaxation in future years equivalent to the time you may now give." The demand was readily assented to, for the tenants of Aberfilly were no less delighted than those of Glen Cairn to escape from the rule of the Kerrs.

http://www.scotweb.co.uk/info/kerr/
In 1502 the barony of Oxnam became Sir Andrew Kerr of Ferniehurst’s by royal charter and he became warden of the middle marches. A few years before the Battle of Flodden Field three Englishmen killed Sir Robert Kerr, a former warden of the middle march, while he was attending a march across the Border, and his son tracked down one of the murderers and gave him what was known as “Jeddart justice”.

Clan Kerr fought against the English at the Battle of Flodden Field during the Anglo-Scottish Warsin 1513. The Clan Kerr’s faithfulness to the Crown of Scotland continued throughout the centuries. The Kerrs fought under their chief, Sir Andrew Kerr, at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513, standing beside King James IV of Scotland in his conflict with the English armies. Once when defending one of the Border Country Castles from an English attack, it is said that the English besiegers believed the Kerrs defending were being aided by the ‘devil himself’, as they fought so ferociously.

Thirteen years after the Battle of Flodden Field, Sir Andrew died in defence of the infant King James V of Scotland when the royal procession was attacked on the way to Edinburgh Castle.

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/ferniehirst/intro.htm
Ferniehirst was built to hold the gate for Scotland and to serve as a base for military raids and cattle-lifting forays. It commands the road to Otterburn and Newcastle, but is itself inconspicuous, concealed by frees and by the lie of the land.[1] It is quite obviously functional, whereas bigger castles often give the impression of having been very largely built for show, and it is difficult to imagine how people could have lived there, kept the place warm, or even simply found their way around.

Ferniehirst and its predecessors have been in the hands of the same family for over 500 years, and perhaps 700 if we are to include more temporary structures which probably existed on or near the same site before Ferniehirst itself. It is difficult to believe that a position of such strategic importance could have been left undefended for centuries, but the traces of the earlier structures are unlikely to be found; they would have been quite small (no more than two or three rooms superimposed on each other), with shallow foundations and largely built of wood: any stonework would have been cannibalised when the first castle was built in or about 1470.

On the second Friday in July, the Jethart Callant, representing all the young men who rode out to battle from Jedburgh in days long past, but never forgotten, leads a cavalcade of 200 riders or more from the town to the Castle forecourt where he, and his Right-hand Man, Left-hand man and Herald (regrettably there is no room for all the other riders and they have to stay just out of sight with their horses) are welcomed in the name of the Family by Lord Lothian or by a Kerr kinsman, ofter but not always a close relative. Following on the speech of welcome. an older representative of the town recites the "Reprisal", a poem which recalls the capture of the Castle in 1548 by Sir John Kerr, his men and their French allies (see p 22). All present then sing a verse of "Jethart’s Here"[2], drinks are passed round and the cavalcade leaves to participate in several other ceremonies before the Callant returns the Jethart Flag to the safekeeping of the Provost for another year.

The other Border Burghs all have similar festivals, spread out through June and July, but the Ferniehirst ceremony is unique, as none of the other towns has a family linked with it in the same way as the Kerrs are linked with Jedburgh.

This ... Town Song ... is treated somewhat like a national anthem.
THE REPRISAL - 1549 by Walter Laidlaw
(Former Custodian of Jedburgh Abbey)

The Scots and French, led on by Kerr, Courageous and well-trained to war, On horse, on foot, from far and near, With Jethart axe and Border spear, Responded to the bugle-call; Though strong the tower, a breach they made, Through which the English captain said, "My noble chief, we mercy crave." "You’ll get the mercy that you gave," Above the clang of sword and spear Was "Forward" heard and "Jethart’s Here!" So well the Kerrs their left-hands ply The dead and dying round them lie, Now trembling for his cruel deeds In vain for life the foeman pleads, Peace over all doth now preside. The days of siege and raids are o’er, The din of war resounds no more; No sound except the song of bird Within the forest glade is heard, While thistles wave and roses bloom To guard and deck the warrior’s tomb.

History of the Kilt in Scotland
The kilt, or philabeg to use its older Gaelic name, that has now become the standard dress for all "Highlanders", has its origin in an older garment called the belted plaid. The Gaelic word for tartan is breacan, meaning partially colored or speckled, and every tartan today features a multicolored arrangement of stripes and checks.

http://www.carr-genealogy.com/cname.html
The Gaelic theory may safely be discarded as the Gaelic language was never spoken in the Kerr territory. The Gaelic word for left-hand was probably a result of an early battle involving the KERR family, (more about that at a later date), rather than the other way around.

The British theory is just credible. The Welsh language was spoken in the upper Tweeddale, where the Kerr family first surfaced in Scotland. As an example, the Wallaces of Eldersile (rent and watch the movie “Braveheart,” The Kerr family lived right where in the middle of the wars and conflicts described in that film). Name did come from the Welsh language.

The most likely answer is that the Kerrs were of Norwegian ancestry. According to this theory, our ancestors came as norsemen with a norse leader whose name was Rolf the Ganger or Rollo the Walker. They settled in the angle of Brittany and the Cherbourg peninsula in 910 ad. Decedents of the Norsemen then came to England in 1066 in the routine of De Bruys, the ancestors of the Robert the Bruce. They took up land near Preston where they received, in return for being gamekeepers for the landlords, a portion of the game. The Kerr families first occupation was that of a Gamekeeper.

The Kerr's, Scotts and Douglases were the most powerful families on the Scottish side of the border. From them were usually chosen the Wardens of the Middle Marches, but they could be little trusted to dispense justice in that office, as they themselves were often raiding the English when no squabbling with each other. They were far more disposed to rely on the axe and the sword to maintain order.

The Border Reiver Families of the Carr and Kerr families Spoke a dialect called Geordie Which, has come down to us today in the region, relativly unchanged.We were Border Reivers or Riding Families for nearly 400 years.

The region between Scotland and England, which includes The Borders, Dumfries and Galloway on the Scottish side, and Cumbria and Northumbria in England, were wartorn and unsettled for more than three hundred years.

The Border Reivers became so inured to the continual strife in their lives that, when they baptized their sons, they left the right hand unblessed, so that in time of feud he would be better equipped to strike unhallowed blows on his familiy's enemy's. That was when they baptized their sons at all.

The Border Reivers were not known for their piety. It was said that they would deceive and rob Jesus himself if he rode among them. A tale is often told of how a man visiting The Borders asked why there were no churches in the town, to which his interlocutor replied, "Nae, we're all Elliotts 'n' Armstrongs here." Nor were the churchmen any fonder of the reivers. The Archbishop of Glasgow publicly cursed them with a resounding ferocity that still has the power to chill our souls.

Riding their shaggy ponies of Norse extraction, Called "Hobby's" dressed in an assortment of helmets and homemade armor, the Kerr's and their counterparts brought sword and musket to bear against their enemies with neither rest nor mercy. Even when England and Scotland were officially at peace, the raids continued.

According to James Leyburn, author of The Scotch-Irish, the Lowland Scots were a mixture of nine main groups - Picts, Gaelic Scotti, Brythonic Celts, Irish emigrants, Angles, Saxons, including the Frisian's, Norse and the descendants of the soldiers who manned the frontier forts ofRoman Britain.

These, plus a smattering of Norman nobles and Flemish traders - even a few Hungarian courtiers from the entourage of Margaret Atheling, bride of Malcolm Canmore - made the people of this region one of the most diverse in the Medieval British Isles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fornj%C3%B3t says "Fornjót (Old Norse Fornjótr) is an ancient giant in Norse mythology, the father of Kári (a personification of wind), of Logi (a personification of fire), and of Hlér or Ægir (the ruler of the sea) and a king of Finland. Fornjót is also, following a particular legendary genealogical tradition, the first-known direct paternal ancestor of William I of England and also through other supposed descendants a terminal ancestor of ascending branches of many European noble families and modern Icelandic families.

According to the Orkneyinga Saga, "There was a king called Fornjotur who ruled over Finland and Kvenland, the countries stretching to the east of what we call the Gulf of Bothnia, which lies opposite the White Sea. Fornjotur had three sons, HLER (whom we also call AEGIR), a second called LOGI and a third, KARI,. Kari was the father of FROSTI, who was in turn the father of SNAER the OLD, the father of THORRI. Thorri had two sons, NOR and GOR and a daughter, GOI." According to legend, Fornjotur was also the father of KARL, HLESSY, and GMIR. Nor founded Norway (Nor'sway) and Gor was known as the "Sea King".

The Bjarmians were the most eastern of the Finnic people referred to as Kvens, and thus Bjarmaland formed the most eastern edge of the area known as Kvenland.

Earl Rognvald campaigned with King Harald Fine Hair who gave him charge of North More, SouthMore and Romsdale. Earl Rognvald married Ragnhild, the daughter of Hrolf Nose, and it was their son, Hrolf, who conquered Normandy. This Hrolf was so big that no horse could carry him, which is why he was given the name Gongu-Hrolf. The earls of Rouen and the kings of England are descended from him."

http://www.scotclans.com/scottish_clans/clans/douglas/history.html
In Gaelic, dubh means black, and glas means grey. These are the main shades used in the tartan. The earliest recorded Douglas seems to be William of Douglas. William’s son was Archibald Douglas, who had a prosperous existence before vanishing in 1239. His son Sir Andrew founded the senior cadet branch of the Douglas family while his other son fathered ‘the Good Sir James’. The Good Sir James was the greatest Captain under Robert the Bruce in the War of Independence and is held as the third of Scotland’s finest patriots only after Bruce and William Wallace. [Sir Andrew Kerr and Sir John Kerr maybe the 4th and 5th most infamous Reivers]

http://www.4crests.com/dunham-coat-of-arms.html
The surname of DUNHAM was a locational name 'of Dunham' places in County Norfolk and Nottingham. Local names usually denoted where a man held land. The name was derived from the Old English word DUNHILL. There is a place in Lincolnshire, now known as Dunholme, from where the original bearer of the name may have lived. The village appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as DUNEHAM. Early records of the name mention Richard Dunham was recorded in the year 1196 in the County of Norfolk. Joel de Dunham appears in County Lincoln, during the reign of Henry III (1216-1272).

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.c/qx/dunham-coat-arms.htm
First found in Norfolk where they held a family seat from very ancient times. "The Dunhams of Callaway: A Genealogical History" by Ray Fields Dawson, "Fuller-Dunham Genealogy: From Edward Fuller of the Mayflower" Robert Wallace Dunham.

http://www.houseofnames.com/dunham-family-crest
The ancestry of the name Dunham dates from the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of Britain. It comes from when the family lived in the parish of Dunham, in the county of Norfolk.

Families began migrating abroad in enormous numbers because of the political and religious discontent in England. Often faced with persecution and starvation in England, the possibilities of the New World attracted many English people. Although the ocean trips took many lives, those who did get to North America were instrumental in building the necessary groundwork for what would become for new powerful nations. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America bore the name Dunham, or a variant. Robert Dunham, who arrived in Virginia in 1650.

http://www.houseofnames.com/wiki/family-seat
This term was used throughout the text of the Domesday Book, where it was rendered as the Latin word caput, and the term continues to be used throughout the British Isles today. A Clan seat refers to the seat of the chief of a Scottish clan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunham [[Danes} Dunham 6,7,8 lands - Kerr 5 princes {Benjamin}]
the father of Kári (a personification of wind), of Logi [Ludh] (a personification of fire), and of [Lear] Hlér or Ægir [Aegir, Aesir] (the ruler of the sea)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Dunham - [Great & Little Dunhams], Norfolk, England
Great Dunham is a village situated in the Breckland District of Norfolk and covers an area of 818 hectares (3.16 square miles). It is served by St. Andrews church. The village lies 1.5 miles north of its sister village Little Dunham and 7 miles by road north east from Swaffham.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Trent
The name "Trent" comes from a Celtic word possibly meaning "strongly flooding". More specifically, the name may be a contraction of two Celtic words, tros ("over") and hynt ("way")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunham_Castle
Dunham Castle, Greater Manchester, England [The Manor]
The castle most likely belonged to Hamo de Mascy who was involved with the barons’ rebellion against Henry II in 1173. Watch Hill Castle (also known as Yarwood Castle, Castle Hill, and Bowdon Watch) is an early medieval motte-and-bailey on the border of Bowdon and Dunham Massey, England. It is the only Scheduled Ancient Monument in Trafford, and so is arguably the most important archaeological site in the borough. The castle is located north of the River Bollin and south of a deep ravine.

The castle is first referred to in 1173, in a document stating Hamo de Masci held the castles of Dunham and Ullerwood. Documentary evidence suggests the castle at Dunham was still standing in 1323. The castle fell into disuse between 1323 and 1362. The castle probably existed on a mound, or motte, near the site of where Dunham Massey Hall is today. The motte is 24 metres (79 ft) in diameter and survives 6.6 ft in height. The site was surrounded by a moat which was later turned into an ornamental lake. Dunham Castle has been confused with Watch Hill Castle in nearby Bowdon, but the two were separate castles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Hill_Castle [Watch Hill Castle - Bowdon & Dunham Massey]
Watch Hill Castle (also known as Yarwood Castle, Castle Hill, and Bowdon Watch) is an early medieval motte-and-bailey on the border of Bowdon and Dunham Massey, England. It is the only Scheduled Ancient Monument in Trafford, and so is arguably the most important archaeological site in the borough. Substantial dating evidence has not been recovered from the site, but the form of the castle as a timber motte-and-bailey would date it to between the Norman Conquest and the 13th century. The castle most likely belonged to Hamo de Mascy who was involved with the barons’ rebellion against Henry II in 1173.

What remains of the motte is conical, measuring 130 ft wide at the base and 17 metres (56 ft) at the top, 6 metres (20 ft) above the base. The motte is surrounded by a 16 ft wide and 9.8 ft deep ditch. It would have been defended by an earthen bank and a palisade; some of the rampart remains as high as 1 ft in some places. The north side of the bailey was doubly protected by the terrain sloping away steeply, and the south side was protected by the river.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunham_Town - [Dunham Town], Greater Manchester, England
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunham_Massey - [Dunham Massey], Greater Manchester, England
There are two Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Dunham Massey: Dunham Park, located south of Dunham Town, and Brookheys Covert.
The Chester to York Roman road passes between the settlements of Dunham Massey and Bowdon and today forms the boundary between the two places. The name Dunham is derived from the Anglo-Saxon. The manor of Dunham is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having belonged to the Saxon thegn Aelfward before the Norman Conquest and to Hamo de Masci. The importance of Dunham is further emphasised by the presence of two of de Massey’s castles: Dunham Castle and Watch Hill Castle on the border with Bowdon; a third, Ullerwood Castle, was near Hale. The Booth family inherited most of the Massey lands in 1409.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunham_on_the_Hill,_Cheshire - [Dunham on the Hill], Cheshire
The village of Dunham on the Hill is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. It is situated 120 feet above sea level, south west of Helsby Hill, and 6 miles from Chester. [near earliest equestrian track]

w. 0711 Tariq ibn-Ziyad crosses the Straits of Gibraltar. Al-Andalus holds most of the Iberian peninsula made up of Arab and Berber Muslims.
w. 0711 The end of Visigoth rule, starting almost eight centuries of Muslim presence.
w. 0712 Liutprand, King of the Lombards begins his reign (until 744).
c. 0712 Metropolitan epicopal see is established by the Assyrian Church in Chinese capital of Chang'an.
w. 0712 Emperor Xuanzong reign of 44 years until 756 is considered a period of one of China's high points.
w. 0713 Death of Dajian Huineng, sixth and last Patriarch of Chán Buddhism.
w. 0717 Siege of Constantinople. The Bulgarians come to the aide of the Byzantines and defeat the army of invading Arabs 718.
w. 0718 Bulgar aid completely neutralizes Muslim advance towards Europe. The Bulgarian army defeated between 20,000 and 32,000 Arabs.
w. 0718 Second Muslim attack on Constantinople, ending in failure. The combined Byzantine–Bulgarian forces stop the Arab threat in Eastern Europe.
w. 0726 Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian destroys the icon of Christ above the Chalke Gate in the capital city of Constantinople.
w. 0726 Byzantine Iconoclast movement begins, opposed by Pope Gregory II, a marked difference between the Roman and Byzantine churches.
w. 0732 Battle of Tours. the leader of the Franks Charles Martel defeats a large army of Moors under Cordoban, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi.
w. 0732 The Battle of Tours halts the advance of Islam into West Europe, establishes a balance of power between West Europe, Islam & Byzantine.
w. 0735 Death of Bede. Bede later became regarded as "the father of history".
w. 0742 The Tang Dynasty creates a municipal census of the capital city Chang'an and the metropolitan areas of Jingzhou Fu
w. 0742 the New Book of Tang records that in this year there were 362,921 registered families with 1,960,188 persons.
w. 0748 The Chinese Buddhist monk Jian Zhen writes in his Yue Jue Shu of the international sea traffic coming to Guangzhou.
w. 0748 Canton some 80 miles from Hong Kong and Macao inland receives is a hub of trade from Borneo, Persia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and others.
w. 0750 The last Umayyad Caliph Marwan II reign after 6 years is overthrown and executed by the first Abbasid Caliph, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah.
w. 0750 The Abbasid Caliphate is moved to Baghdad, within the Persian Empire; this would prove to be a momentous event for Baghdad.
w. 0750 Baghdad develops into a centre of trade and culture. The beginning of Abbasid Caliphate.
w. 0750 The Ghana Empire begins.
c. 0750 Great Wild Goose Pagoda at Ci'en Temple, Xi'an, Shanxi, is rebuilt.
c. 0750 Camel Carrying a Group of Musicians, tomb near Xi'an, Shanxi, Tang dynasty. It is now kept at Museum of Chinese History, Beijing.
w. 0751 Pepin founds the Carolingian dynasty.
w. 0751 Arabs defeat Chinese Tang Dynasty troops, Battle of Talas, high in the Pamirs near Samarkand conquering Central Asia completely.
w. 0754 Pepin promises the Pope central Italy. This is arguably the beginning of the temporal power of the Papacy.
w. 0755 The An Shi Rebellion lasts 8 years until 763 devastating China during the mid Tang Dynasty.
w. 0758 Arab and Persian pirates burn and loot the Chinese city of Guangzhou, while the Tang Dynasty authorities shut the port down.
w. 0758 China's Canton embargo's foriegn trade for the next five decades.
w. 0768 Pepin dies; Charles becomes king at Noyan and his brother Carloman becomes king at Soissons. Beginning of Charlemagne's reign.
w. 0772 Charlemagne invades what is now northwestern Germany, battling Saxons for more than 32 years and finally crushing their rebellion.
w. 0778 Battle of Roncevaux Pass.
w. 0781 Nestorian Monument is erected in China.
w. 0782 Buddhist monk Prajna reaches Chang'an and enlists the help of Christian bishop Ching Ching (Adam) in translating sutras into Chinese.
w. 0785 The Tang Dynasty begins landing regular maritime missions on the coast of East Africa, cutting out middlemen Arab sea merchants.
c. 0785 Chinese geographer Jia Dan describes large lighthouse pillars built in the Persian Gulf, which is confirmed a century later.
w. 0786 Accession of Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad.
w. 0787 The Empress Irene of Athens convenes the Seventh Ecumenical Council, ending the first phase of Byzantine Iconoclasm.
w. 0792 Battle of Marcelae. The Bulgarian victory over the Byzantines marks the end of the half-century political instability in Bulgaria.
w. 0793 The first written account of a Viking raid carried out on the abbey of Lindisfarne in northern England.
w. 0793 The Frisian–Frankish wars come to an end with the last uprising of the Frisians.
w. 0793 Sack of Lindisfarne. Viking attacks on Britain begin.
w. 0794 Emperor Kammu moves the capital to Heian-kyo (present day Kyoto), initiating the Heian period of Japan.
w. 0795 Death of Offa. Marks the end of Mercian dominance in England.
w. 0800 Beginning of the ancient West African state of Takrur or Tekrour, which flourished roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire.
w. 0800 On Christmas Day, Charlemagne is crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III.
w. 0800 Charlemagne is crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III.
w. 0804 Saxony is incorporated into the Frankish Empire and the Christian world.
w. 0814 Death of Charlemagne.
w. 0825 Battle of Ellandun. Egbert defeats Mercians. Wessex becomes the leading kingdom of England.
w. 0827 Muslims invade Sicily.
w. 0840 Muslims capture Bari and much of southern Italy.
w. 0843 Division of Charlemagne's Empire between his grandsons with the Treaty of Verdun.
w. 0843 The end of Charlemagne's Empire sets the stage for the founding of the Holy Roman Empire and France as separate states.
w. 0840 Kenneth McAlpin becomes king of the Picts and Scots, creating the Kingdom of Alba.
w. 0862 Viking state in Russia founded under Rurik, first at Novgorod, then Kiev.
w. 0864 Christianization of Bulgaria.
w. 0866 Fujiwara period in Japan.
w. 0866 Viking "Great Army" in England. Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia were overwhelmed.
w. 0868 Earliest known printed book in China with a date.
w. 0871 Alfred the Great assumes the throne, the first king of a united England.
w. 0871 Alfred the Greatdefended England from Viking invaders, formed new laws and fostered a rebirth of religious and scholarly activities.
w. 0872 Harold Fairhair becomes King of Norway.
w. 0874 Iceland is settled by Norsemen.
w. 0885 Arrival of the disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria. Creation of the Cyrillic alphabet;
w. 0885 Bulgaria would in the following decades became the cultural and spiritual centre of the Eastern Orthodox Slavic World.
w. 0885 Vikings attack and invade Paris for several years.
w. 0893 Simeon I becomes ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in the Balkans.
w. 0896 Arpad and the Magyars are present in Pannonia.
w. 0897 Death of Alfred the Great.
w. 0910 Edward the Elder, son of Alfred, defeats the Northumbrian vikings at the Battle of Tettenhall; raids south of the River Humber end.
w. 0910 Cluny Abbey is founded by William I, Count of Auvergne. Cluny goes on to become the acknowledged leader of Western Monasticism.
w. 0911 The Viking Rollo settles in what is now Normandy by the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, founding the Duchy of Normandy.
w. 0917 Battle of Anchialus. Simeon I the Great defeats the Byzantines. Recognition of the Imperial Title of the Bulgarian rulers.
w. 0919 Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony elected German King. First king of the Ottonian Dynasty.
w. 0919 Henry I considered the founder and first king of the medieval German state.
w. 0925 The first King of Croatia (rex Croatorum), Tomislav (910–928) of the Trpimirovic dynasty was crowned.
w. 0925 Tomislav of Croatia united Croats of Dalmatia and Pannonia into a single Kingdom creating a sizeable state.
w. 0927 According to Theophanes Continuatus, (The 2nd author of Theophanes's Chronicle) Tomislav defeats a Bulgarian army of Tsar Simeon I .
w. 0927 Croatia under Duke Alogobotur, in battle of the Bosnian Highlands, Bulgarian expansion into the west was stopped.
w. 0927 Death of Simeon I the Great. Recognition of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, the first independent National Church in Europe.
w. 0929 Abd-ar-Rahman III of the Ummayad dynasty in al-Andalus (Iberian peninsula) takes the title of Caliph or ruler of the Islamic world.
w. 0929 Beginning of the Caliphate of Córdoba (929-1031).
w. 0955 Battle of Lechfeld. Otto the Great, son of Henry the Fowler, defeats the Magyars.
w. 0955 The defeats the Magyars is the defining event that prevents the Hungarians from entering Central Europe.
c. 0960 Mieszko I becomes duke of Polans. First historical ruler of Poland and de facto founder of the Polish State.
w. 0962 Otto the Great crowned the Holy Roman Emperor.
w. 0964 Otto deposes Pope John XII who is replaced with Pope Leo VIII. Romans promise not to elect another Pope without Imperial approval.
w. 0965 For 2 years Mieszko I of Poland and his court embrace Christianity, which becomes national religion.
w. 0969 John I Tzimiskes murders Nikephoros II and is crowned Byzantine co-emperor in his place.
w. 0976 Death of John I Tzimiskes; Basil II (his co-emperor) takes sole power. Under Basil II zenith of the power of Eastern Empire after Justinian.
w. 0978 Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir becomes de facto ruler of Muslim Al-Andalus. Peak of power of Moorish Iberia under "Almanzor".
w. 0981 Basil II (called "Bulgar Slayer") begins final conquest of Bulgaria by Eastern Empire. Conquest finished by 1018.
w. 0985 Eric the Red, exiled from Iceland, begins Scandinavian colonization of Greenland.
w. 0987 Succession of Hugh Capet to the French Throne. Beginning of Capetian Dynasty.
w. 1018 The Byzantines under Basil II conquer Bulgaria after a bitter 50-years struggle.
w. 1049 Pope Leo IX ascends to the papal throne.
w. 1050 The astrolabe, an ancient tool of navigation, is first used in Europe.
w. 1054 The East-West Schism which divided the church into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
w. 1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades England and becomes King after the Battle of Hastings.
w. 1066 End of Anglosaxon rule in England and start of Norman lineage
w. 1067 Pope Gregory VII elevated to the papal throne. This begins a period of church reform.
w. 1071 The Seljuks under Alp Arslan defeat the Byzantine army at Manzikert.
w. 1071 The Normans capture Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy. Beginning of the end of Byzantine rule in Asia Minor.
w. 1075 Dictatus Papae in which Pope Gregory VII defines the powers of the pope.
w. 1077 Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV walks to Canossa where he stands barefoot in the snow to beg forgiveness of the Pope for his offences.
w. 1077 Henry IV admits defeat in the Investiture Controversy. This helps establish Papal rule over European heads of state for another 450 years.
w. 1077 The Construction of the Tower of London begins. The tower of London was the ultimate keep of the British Empire.
w. 1086 The Domesday Book by William the Conqueror, a great land and property survey is the first since Roman times.
w. 1098 The Cistercian Order is founded.
w. 1099 First Crusade. Jerusalem is re-taken from the Muslims on the urging of Pope Urban II.
w. 1102 Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Hungary formed a personal union of two kingdoms united under the Hungarian king.
w. 1102 The Union Croatia & Hungary (Pacta conventa) by which institutions of separate statehood were maintained through the Sabor.
w. 1102 The creation of an assembly of Croatian nobles and the ban (viceroy). In addition, the Croatian nobles retained their lands and titles.
w. 1102 Medieval Hungary and Croatia were (in terms of public international law) allied by means of personal union until 1526.
w. 1102 The Hungarian-Croatian state existed until the beginning of the 20th century and the Treaty of Trianon.
w. 1106 Sept. 28th, Henry I defeats older brother Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, at the Battle of Tinchebrai, imprisoning him in Devizes.
w. 1106 Henry I imprisons Edgar Atheling and William Clito, [beginning conflicts] between England and the rising Capetian power in France.
w. 1107 Through the Compromise of 1107, suggested by Adela, the sister of King Henry, the Investiture Struggle in England is ended.
w. 1107 The Compromise of 1107 removed one of the points of friction between the English monarchy and the Catholic Church.
w. 1109 In the Battle of Naklo, Boleslaus III Wrymouth defeats the Pomeranians. Polish access to the sea is re-established.
w. 1109 Aug. 24th, the Battle of Hundsfeld, Boleslaus III Wrymouth defeats Emperor Henry V. German expansion to the east is stopped.
w. 1116 The Byzantine army defeats the Turks at Philomelion. The Turks abandon the entire coastal area of Anatolia and all of western Anatolia.
w. 1117 The University of Oxford is founded.
w. 1118 The Knights Templar are founded to protect Jerusalem and European pilgrims on their journey to the city.
w. 1121 Dec. 25th, St. Norbert and 29 companions make their solemn vows marking the beginning of the Premonstratensian Order.
w. 1121 The Premonstratensian Order played a significant role in evangelizing the Slavs, the Wends, to the east of the Holy Roman Empire.
w. 1122 Sept. 23rd, The Concordat of Worms between Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II, ended the investiture struggle, bitter rivalry remained.
w. 1123 March, The First Lateran Council confirmed the Concordat of Worms.
w. 1125 Lothair of Supplinburg, duke of Saxony, is elected Holy Roman Emperor instead of the nearest heir, Frederick of Swabia.
w. 1125 The election of Lothair of Supplinburg, duke of Saxony marks the beginning of the great struggle between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines.
w. 1130 Dec. 25th, Roger II is crowned King of Sicily, a royal title given him by the Antipope Anacletus II.
w. 1130 This coronation of Roger II marks the beginning of the Kingdom of Sicily and its Mediterranean empire under the Norman kings,
w. 1130 Norman kings, [posessions, land & military might are] able to take on the Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy, and the Byzantine Empire.
w. 1139 April, The 2nd Lateran Council declars clerical marriages invalid, regulates clerical dress, & punishes attacks on clerics by excommunication.
w. 1147 For 2 years The Second Crusade [raged] in retaliation for the fall of Edessa, one of the first Crusader States founded in the First Crusade.
w. 1147 The Second Crusade was an overall failure. This was the first Crusade to have been led by European kings.
w. 1150 Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, married Queen Petronilla of Aragon. They had been betrothed in 1137.
w. 1150 Ramon Berenguer IV marriage gave the Kingdom of Aragon access to the Mediterranean Sea, creating a powerful kingdom.
w. 1150 Aragon expanded its control to many of the Mediterranean lands.
w. 1152 The Synod of Kells-Mellifont established the present diocesan system of Ireland and recognized the primacy of Armagh.
w. 1152 The Synod of Kells-Mellifont marks the inclusion of the Irish Church into western European Catholicism.
w. 1158 The Hanseatic League is founded, marking a new period of trade and economic development for northern and western Europe.
w. 1163 The first cornerstone is laid for the construction of Notre Dame de Paris.
w. 1171 King Henry II of England lands in Ireland to assert his supremacy and the Synod of Cashel acknowledges his sovereignty.
w. 1171 Henry begins the English claim to and occupation of Ireland which would last some seven and a half centuries.
w. 1174 July 12th, King William I of Scotland, captured in the Battle of Alnwick by the English, accepts the feudal lordship of the English crown.
w. 1174 King William I of Scotland does ceremonial allegiance at York, beginning the gradual acquisition of Scotland by the English.
w. 1175 Honen Shonin (Genku) founds the Jodo shu (Pure Land) sect of Buddhism. Beginning the Buddhist sectarian movement in Japan.
w. 1176 May 29th, the Battle of Legnano, the cavalry of Frederick Barbarossa is defeated by the infantry of the Lombard League.
w. 1176 the Battle of Legnano, the first major defeat of cavalry by infantry, signaling the new role of the bourgeosie.
w. 1179 March, The 3rd Lateran Council limits papal electees to the cardinals, condemns simony, forbids the promotion before age 30.
w. 1183 The final Peace of Constance between Frederick Barbarossa, the pope, and the Lombard towns is signed.
w. 1183 The Peace of Constance destroyed the unity of the [Holy Roman] Empire; Germany and Italy underwent separate developments.
w. 1183 The Taira clan are driven out of Kyoto by Minamoto Yoshinaka. A 2 year conflict which follows ends at the Battle of Dan no Ura (1185).
w. 1184 November, Pope Lucius III issues the papal bull Ad Abolendam. This bull set up the organization of the medieval inquisitions.
w. 1185 Windmills are first recorded.
w. 1185 The reestablishment of the Bulgarian Empire.
w. 1185 At the Battle of Dan no Ura, Minamoto Yoshitsune annihilates the Taira clan.
w. 1185 The elimination of the Taira leaves the Minamoto the virtual rulers of Japan and marks the beginning of the first period of feudal rule.
w. 1185 the Japanese rulership known as the Kamakura Period.
w. 1186 Jan, 27th, The future emperor Henry VI marries Constance of Sicily, heiress to the Sicilian throne.
w. 1186 The marriage of Henry VI shifts the focus of the Guelphs/Ghibelline struggle to Sicily marking the ruin of the House of Hohenstaufen.
w. 1187 Saladin recaptures Jerusalem.
w. 1188 Richard I of England, imposes heavy taxation to finance European ventures creates antipathy between barons, people and the crown.
w. 1188 Richard the I's absence enables the English to advance in their political development.
w. 1189 The Third Crusade follows upon Saladin's uniting the Muslim world and recapturing Jerusalem.
w. 1192 Despite managing to win several major battles, the Crusaders did not recapture Jerusalem.
w. 1192 Minamoto Yoritomo is appointed Sei-i Taishogun, shogun for short. First of a long line of military dictators to bear this title until 1913.
w. 1193 Turkic Muslim invaders sack and burn the university at Nalanda. This is the beginning of the decline of Buddhism in India.
w. 1193 The first known merchant guild.
w. 1202 The Fourth Crusade sacked Croatian town of Zadar (Italian Zara), a rival of Venice.
w. 1202 Venice is unable to raise enough funds to pay to their Venetian contractors.
w. 1202 Crusaders agreed to sack Zara despite letters from Pope Innocent III forbidding such an action and threatening excommunication.
w. 1202 Siege of Zara was the first major Crusade's action and the first attack against a Catholic city by Catholic crusaders.
w. 1204 Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.
w. 1205 Battle of Adrianople. The Bulgarians under Emperor Kaloyan defeat Baldwin I. Beginning of the decline of the Latin Empire.
w. 1206 Genghis Khan was elected as Khagan of the Mongols and the Mongol Empire was established.
w. 1206 The Mongols would conquer much of Eurasia, changing former political borders.
w. 1208 Pope Innocent III calls for the Albigensian Crusade which seeks to destroy a rival form of Christianity practiced by the Cathars.
w. 1209 The University of Cambridge is founded.
w. 1212 Children's Crusade.
w. 1212 Spanish Christians succeed in defeating the Moors in the long Reconquista campaigns.
w. 1215 The Magna Carta is sealed by John of England, marking one of the 1st times a medieval ruler is forced to accept limits on his power.
w. 1215 4th Lateran Council. Dealt with transubstantiation, papal primacy and conduct of clergy.
w. 1215 4th Lateran Council. Jews and Muslims [are ordered to] wear identification marks to distinguish them from Christians.
w. 1216 Papal recognition of the Dominican Order.
w. 1223 Founding of the Franciscan Order.
w. 1248 only the small southern kingdom of Granada remained under Muslim control [in the Iberian Penisula of Spain].
w. 1257 Founding of the University of Paris.
w. 1257 Provisions of Oxford forced upon Henry III of England, establishes a new form of government-limited regal authority.
w. 1273 Rudolph I of Germany is elected Holy Roman Emperor. Habsburg domination of the crown that lasted until is dissolution in 1806.
w. 1274 Thomas Aquinas' work, Summa Theologica is published.
w. 1295 Marco Polo publishes his tales of China. A key step to the bridging of East and West
w. 1296 Edward I of England invades Scotland, starting the First War of Scottish Independence.
w. 1297 William Wallace emerges as the leader of the Scottish resistance to England.
w. 1307 Friday, October 13th. The Knights Templar are rounded up and murdered by Philip the Fair of France, backed by the Pope.
w. 1307 Beginning of the Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy during which the Popes moved to Avignon.
w. 1310 Dante publishes his Divine Comedy.
w. 1314 Robert the Bruce restores Scotland's de facto independence at the Battle of Bannockburn.
w. 1328 First Scottish War of Independence ends in victory with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton and de jure independence.
w. 1337 The Hundred Years' War begins. England and France struggle for dominance of Western Europe.
w. 1347 The Black Death ravages Europe for the first of many times.
w. 1347 The Black Death kills an estimated 20% - 40% of the population of Europe within the first year.
w. 1347 The University of Prague is founded.
w. 1361 The fall of the Yuan Dynasty. Its successor state-Northern Yuan was founded in Mongolia.
w. 1361 The break up of the Mongol Empire, which marked the end of Pax Mongolica.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iron_bridge
The Battle of Iron Bridge fought near a nine-arch stone bridge spanning the River Orontes between the Muslim Rashidun army and the Byzantine army in 637 AD. Twelve miles from the city, near modern day Mahruba, a bridge of iron spanned the River Orontes. It was here that the battle was fought between the Rashidun army and the Byzantine garrison defending Antioch. A major battle was fought, the details of which are not recorded. The remnants of the Byzantine army fled to Antioch. The Rashidun army later moved up and laid siege to Antioch. The city surrendered on October 30, 637 According to the pact, the defeated Byzantine soldiers were allowed to depart in peace. Following the surrender of Antioch, Rashidun army columns moved south along the Mediterranean coast capturing most of north-western Syria. Other columns were sent to subdue the remaining resistance in northern Syria. The campaign was ended in early January of 638. After the defeat of pro-Byzantine Christian Arabs from Al Jazira, who laid the siege of Emessa in March 638. These columns went northwards as far as the Ararat plain and west towards the Taurus Mountains. The Taurus Mountains in Turkey thus marked the westernmost frontier of the Rashidun Caliphate in Anatolia.

The Second Arab Siege of Constantinople, 718.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Constantinople_%28717%E2%80%93718%29

The Song of Roland, The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, 778.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roncevaux_Pass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stamford_Bridge
The Battle of Stamford Bridge took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire in England on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading Norwegian force led by King Harald Hardrada of Norway and the English king's brother Tostig Godwinson. At this time King Harold was in southern England, anticipating an invasion from France by William, Duke of Normandy, another contender for the English throne. Learning of the Norwegian invasion he headed north at great speed with his huscarls and as many thegns as he could gather, travelling day and night. He made the journey from London to Yorkshire, a distance of about 185 miles, in only four days, enabling him to take the Norwegians completely by surprise. Having learned that Northumbrians had been ordered to send the additional hostages and supplies to the Norwegians at Stamford Bridge, Harold hurried on through York to attack them at this rendezvous on 25 September. Until the English army came into view the invaders remained unaware of the presence of a hostile army anywhere in the vicinity.

After a stubborn battle, both Hardrada and Tostig along with the majority of the Norwegians were killed. Although Harold repelled the Norwegian invaders, his victory was short-lived: he was defeated and killed at Hastings less than three weeks later. The battle has traditionally been presented as symbolising the end of the Viking Age, although in fact major Scandinavian campaigns in the British Isles occurred for several more decades. In his saga Heimskringla about Harald III of Norway, which was written around 1225, Snorri Sturluson described the disposition of the Norwegian troops. Snorri also claimed that the Norwegians had left their mail coats at the ships and thus had to fight with only shield, spear and helmets. The sagas, however, are historical fiction which Snorri admits in his Prologue, "although we do not know the truth of these, we know, however, of occasions when wise old men have reckoned such things as true."

The 1st Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1095-1291
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades

The Abbasid caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids (Arabic: al-‘abbāsīyūn), was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but the Al Andalus region.The Abbasid caliphs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566 – 662), one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, because of which they considered themselves the true successor of Muhammad as opposed to the Umayyads. The Umayyads were descended from Umayya, and were a clan separate from Muhammad's in the Quraish tribe. They won the backing of Shiites (i.e. the Hashimiyya sub-sect of the Kaysanites Shia) against the Umayyads by temporarily converting to Shia Islam[citation needed] and joining their fight against Umayyad rule.

The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character and administration in general. According to Ira Lapidus, "The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali". The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, who remained outside the kinship-based society of the Arabs and were perceived as a lower class within the Umayyad empire. The first change the Abbasids made was to move the empire's capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. This was to both appease as well to be closer to the Persian mawali support base that existed in this region more influenced by Persian history and culture, and part of the Persian mawali demand for less Arab dominance in the empire. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762. Abu al-'Abbas' successor, Al-Mansur, moved their capital from Damascus to the new city of Baghdad and welcomed non-Arab Muslims to their court. While this helped integrate Arab and Persian cultures, it alienated many of their Arab supporters, particularly the Khorasanian Arabs who had supported them in their battles against the Umayyads.

The Islamic Golden Age was inaugurated by the middle of the 8th century by the ascension of the Abbasid Caliphate and the transfer of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The Abbassids were influenced by the Qur'anic injunctions and hadith such as "the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr" stressing the value of knowledge.

The reigns of Harun al-Rashid (786 – 809) and his successors fostered an age of great intellectual achievement. In large part, this was the result of the schismatic forces that had undermined the Umayyad regime, which relied on the assertion of the superiority of Arab culture as part of its claim to legitimacy, and the Abbasids' welcoming of support from non-Arab Muslims. It is well established that the Abbasid caliphs modeled their administration on that of the Sassanids.[8] Harun al-Rashid's son, Al-Ma'mun (whose mother was Persian), is even quoted as saying:

"The Persians ruled for a thousand years and did not need us Arabs even for a day. We have been ruling them for one or two centuries and cannot do without them for an hour."

A number of medieval thinkers and scientists living under Islamic rule played a role in transmitting Islamic science to the Christian West. They contributed to making Aristotle known in Christian Europe. In addition, the period saw the recovery of much of the Alexandrian mathematical, geometric and astronomical knowledge, such as that of Euclid and Claudius Ptolemy. These recovered mathematical methods were later enhanced and developed by other Islamic scholars, notably by Persian scientists Al-Biruni and Abu Nasr Mansur.

Astronomy in medieval Islam was advanced by Al-Battani, who improved the precision of the measurement of the precession of the Earth's axis. The corrections made to the geocentric model by al-Battani, Averroes, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi and Ibn al-Shatir were later incorporated into the Copernican heliocentric model. The astrolabe, though originally developed by the Greeks, was developed further by Islamic astronomers and engineers, and subsequently brought to medieval Europe. Muslim chemists and alchemists influenced medieval European alchemists and chemists, particularly the writings attributed to Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber). A number of chemical processes such as distillation techniques were developed in the Muslim world and then spread to Europe.

Arabic poetry reached its greatest heights in the Abbasid era, especially before the loss of central authority and the rise of the Persianate dynasties. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights). The original concept is derived from pre-Islamic Iranian (Persian) prototype with reliance on Indian elements. It also includes stories from the rest of the Middle-Eastern and North African nations. The epic took form in the 10th century and reached its final form by the 14th century

One of the common definitions for "Islamic philosophy" is "the style of philosophy produced within the framework of Islamic culture." Islamic philosophy, in this definition is neither necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor is exclusively produced by Muslims. Their works on Aristotle was a key step in the transmission of learning from ancient Greeks to the Islamic world and the West. They often corrected the philosopher, encouraging a lively debate in the spirit of ijtihad. They also wrote influential original philosophical works, and their thinking was incorporated into Christian philosophy during the Middle Ages, notably by Thomas Aquinas.[citation needed]

The Muslim world adopted papermaking from China. The knowledge of gunpowder was also transmitted from China via Islamic countries, where the formulas for pure potassium nitrate and an explosive gunpowder effect were first developed.Advances were made in irrigation and farming, using new technology such as the windmill. Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made a number of innovative industrial uses of hydropower, and early industrial uses of tidal power, wind power, and petroleum (notably by distillation into kerosene). The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in widespread use since at least the 9th century. By the time of the Crusades, every province throughout the Islamic world had mills in operation, from al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia. These mills performed a variety of agricultural and industrial tasks. Muslim engineers also developed machines (such as pumps) incorporating crankshafts, employed gears in mills and water-raising machines, and used dams to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines. Such advances made it possible for many industrial tasks that were previously driven by manual labour in ancient times to be mechanized and driven by machinery instead in the medieval Islamic world. It has been argued that the the industrial use of waterpower had spread from Islamic to Christian Spain, where fulling mills, paper mills, and forge mills were recorded for the first time in Catalonia.

Arab merchants dominated trade in the Indian Ocean until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century. Hormuz was an important center for this trade. There was also a dense network of trade routes in the Mediterranean, along which Muslim countries traded with each other and with European powers such as Venice, Genoa and Catalonia. The Silk Road crossing Central Asia passed through Muslim states between China and Europe.

Abbasids, dynasty of caliphs who ruled the caliphate of Islam from 750 until 1258. All of these caliphs were descended from Abbas, a member of the tribe of Quraysh of Mecca who was an uncle of the prophet Muhammad. The Abbasids seized the caliphate following the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty of caliphs, and held it until the Mongols sacked Baghdād and killed the last caliph of the line. For most of this time their court was in Baghdād, a town founded at the command of the second Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur (754-775) in 762.

For the first century or so of their caliphate, the Abbasids acted as the leaders of Islam both religiously and politically, despite the fact that during this period their authority was rejected by some. The peak of their power probably occurred in the reign of Harun ar-Rashid, who relied heavily on the Barmakid family of administrators. Following Harun’s death there was a period of civil war between his two sons, al-Amin and al-Mamun. Al-Mamun finally triumphed but the prestige of the family was damaged.

By the end of the 9th century the Abbasids were unable to exercise real religious or political authority. Their religious authority had been taken over by the religious scholars of Sunni Islam following the failure of the caliphs’ attempt to impose their will over them in the trial of strength known as the Mihna (833-847). As a result of this episode the caliphs were restricted to a largely symbolic role as merely nominal leaders of Sunni Islam. Followers of Shia Islam rejected the Abbasids completely.

Politically the caliphs had become puppets in the hands of their Turkish soldiers, who were able to remove and install caliphs as they wished. In 908 one caliph held office for one day only. The process culminated with the institution in 935 of the title Amir al-Umara (Commander of the Commanders), which was taken by the real political power, the chief of the Turkish soldiers.

At the same time, territories that the Abbasids controlled fell apart as independent states arose in regions previously under Abbasid rule. Some of the rulers of these states recognized the suzerainty of the Abbasids, but this was merely a token. In 945 the Shia Buwayhid family conquered Baghdād itself, and for the next century the Abbasid caliphate survived mainly because the Buwayhids found it useful in various ways.

Although the 9th and 10th centuries saw a decline in the power of the caliphs, the period was one of great religious and cultural importance. The trial of strength between the caliphs and the Sunni religious scholars sealed the rise of the Sunni form of Islam. It prepared the way for the appearance of the great books of Sunni law and the collections of hadiths (reports about Muhammad). Only slightly later, the Shia form of Islam achieved its definitive form when the line of the 12 Imams came to an end in 873, an event followed by the appearance of books of Shia law and distinctive collections of hadiths.

Philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and other sciences flourished as the Islamic world appropriated and developed the knowledge and wisdom of earlier and surrounding cultures. Particularly important was the science and philosophy of the Hellenistic Near East, and the 9th and 10th centuries saw the translation into Arabic of several works by (or attributed to) figures like Aristotle, Plato, Euclid, Galen, and others. The work of translation was encouraged by the Abbasid al-Mamun who founded the so-called House of Wisdom (Dar al-Hikma) in Baghdād as a center for it. Arabic-speaking Christians were especially active in the production of translations. The system of so-called Arabic numerals originated in India, but was adopted at this time by Islamic civilization, then later transmitted to the West.

The political fragmentation of the caliphate led to the emergence of many local courts and centers of power, which also encouraged the development of science and philosophy as well as poetry and prose, art, and architecture. Some of the local courts that emerged in the eastern regions of the caliphate are especially associated with the rise of an Islamic Persian literature and Iranian national sentiment.

In 1055 the Seljuk Turks, who were Sunnis, captured Baghdād, but this made no significant difference to the position of the caliphs. Although once again honored as symbols of the unity of Sunni Islam, their freedom of action was severely limited. Only in times of Seljuk weakness were individual caliphs occasionally able to exercise some power and influence. By the time the Mongol Empire ended the line of caliphs in 1258, Sunni Islam no longer needed even the symbolic role of the caliphate. It is true that the Mamluk sultans of Egypt established a puppet caliphate in Cairo, installing various members of the Abbasid family who had escaped the fall of Baghdād. Since the end of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdād, however, no claimant to the office has achieved anything like general recognition among the Muslims.

After their first century or so the Abbasids cannot be said to have had much control over events. They nevertheless provided a focus of loyalty for Sunni Islam during an often turbulent period, and their caliphate may be seen in retrospect as the golden age of Islamic civilization.

The settlement of Meroe pre-dated Antioch. A shrine of Anat, called by the Greeks the "Persian Artemis," was located here. This site was included in the eastern suburbs of Antioch. There was a village on the spur of Mount Silpius named Iopolis. This name was always adduced as evidence by Antiochenes (e.g. Libanius) anxious to affiliate themselves to the Attic Ionians--an eagerness which is illustrated by the Athenian types used on the city's coins. Io may have been a small early colony of trading Greeks (Javan). John Malalas mentions also an archaic village, Bottia, in the plain by the river. Antioch on the Orontes, also the Great Antioch (or Syrian Antioch) was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey. Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the Near East and was a cradle of Gentile Christianity. It was one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis. Once a great metropolis of a half million people, it declined to insignificance during the Middle Ages because of repeated earthquakes, the slaughter of its inhabitants by a Mameluk army in 1268, and a change in trade routes, following the Mongol conquests, which then no longer passed through Antioch from the far east.

After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his generals divided up the territory he had conquered. Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, and he proceeded to found four "sister cities" in northwestern Syria, one of which was Antioch. Seleucus founded Antioch on a site chosen through ritual means. An eagle, the bird of Zeus, had been given a piece of sacrificial meat and the city was founded on the site to which the eagle carried the offering. He did this in the twelfth year of his reign. The new city was populated by a mix of local settlers that Athenians brought from the nearby city of Antigonia, Macedonians, and Jews (who were given full status from the beginning). The total free population of Antioch at its foundation has been estimated at between 17,000 and 25,000, not including slaves and native settlers. During the late Hellenistic period and Early Roman period, Antioch population reached its peak of over 500,000 inhabitants (estimates vary from 400,000 to 600,000) and was the third largest city in the world after Rome and Alexandria. By the 4th century, Antioch's declining population was about 200,000.

[During] the Umayyad dynasty period [Islam] was unable to penetrate [into] the Anatolian plateau. Antioch found itself on the frontline of the conflicts between two hostile empires during the next 350 years, so that the city went into a precipitous decline. In 637, during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, Antioch was conquered by the Arabs in the caliphate of al-Rashidun during the Battle of Iron Bridge. The city became known in Arabic as Antakya. In 969, the city was recovered for the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas by Michael Bourtzes and Peter the Eunuch. It soon became the seat of a doux, who commanded the forces of the local themes and was the most important officer on the Empire's eastern border, held by such men as Nikephoros Ouranos. In 1078, Armenians seized power until the Seljuk Turks captured Antioch in 1084, but held it only fourteen years before the Crusaders arrived.

The Crusaders' Siege of Antioch conquered the city in 1098. At this time, the bulk of far eastern trade travelled through Egypt, but in the second half of the 12th century Nur ed-Din and later Saladin brought order to Moslem Syria, opening up long distance trade routes, including to Antioch and on to its new port, St Symeon, which had replaced Seleucia Pieria. However, the Mongol conquests of the 13th century altered the main trade routes from the far east, as they encouraged merchants to take the overland route through Mongol territory to the Black Sea, reducing the prosperity of Antioch. Although it contained a large Christian population, it was ultimately betrayed by Islamic allies of Bohemund, prince of Taranto who, following the defeat of the Turkish garrison, became its overlord. It remained the capital of the Latin Principality of Antioch for nearly two centuries. It fell at last to the Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Baibars, in 1268, after another siege. Baibars proceeded to massacre the Christian population and destroy its fortifications.

The ramparts of Antioch climbing Mons Silpius during the Crusades
Capture of Antioch by Bohemund of Taranto in June 1098.
Ancient Roman road located in Syria which connected Antioch and Chalcis

Maniacal

May 07, 2011, 12:49 AM

Good read, thanks :) I haven't felt like playing this game again yet but when I do I fully intend to try out this mod.

KillCarneyKlansmen

May 07, 2011, 01:12 AM

Its worth the price on Ebay, probably only 10-20 Bucks or so, at best. More development of the game than a few years ago, also adds to its playability. I might use Demo for platform for mods ?? very possible, but just buy it, it is worth the low price.

Maniacal

May 07, 2011, 01:14 AM

I have a copy and its installed, just haven't felt like playing it for some time, although I probably pick it up again soon because I don't feel like reinstalling Medieval II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers
Called El-Bahdja or "Algiers the White" for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea. The city name is derived from the Arabic word al-jaza’ir (the French Alger and Catalan Alguère), which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lay off the city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525.

The present-day city was founded in 944 by Bologhine ibn Ziri, the founder of the Berber Zirid–Sanhaja dynasty, which was overthrown by Roger II of Sicily in 1148, although the Zirids had already lost control of Algiers before the final fall of the dynasty. The city was occupied by the Almohades in 1159, and in the 13th century came under the dominion of the Abd-el-Wadid sultans of Tlemcen. Nominally part of the sultanate of Tlemcen, Algiers had a large measure of independence under amirs of its own due to Oran being the chief seaport and center of power of the Abd-el-Wahid.

As early as 1302 the islet of Peñón in front of Algiers harbour had been occupied by Spaniards. Thereafter, a considerable amount of trade began to flow between Algiers and Spain. However, Algiers continued to be of comparatively little importance until after the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, many of whom sought asylum in the city. In 1510, following their occupation of Oran and other towns on the coast of Africa, the Spaniards fortified the islet of Peñon and imposed a levy intended to suppress corsair activity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirid_dynasty
The Zirids were Sanhaja Berbers of the area of modern Algeria. In the 10th century this tribe served as vassals of the Fatimids, defeating the Kharijite rebellion of Abu Yazid (943-947), under Ziri ibn Manad (935-971). Ziri was installed as the governor of central Maghreb and founded the gubernatorial residence of Ashir south-east of Algiers, with Fatimid support.

When the Fatimids moved their base to Egypt in 972, Ziri's son Buluggin ibn Ziri (971-984) was appointed viceroy of Ifriqiya. The removal of the fleet to Egypt made the retention of Kalbid Sicily impossible, while Algeria broke away under the governorship of Hammad ibn Buluggin, Buluggin's son.

The relationship with the Fatimid overlords was variable - in 1016 thousands of Shiites lost their lives in rebellions in Ifriqiya, and the Fatimids encouraged the defection of Tripolitania from the Zirids, but nevertheless the relationship remained close. In 1049 the Zirids broke away completely by adopting Sunni Islam and recognizing the Abbasids of Baghdad as rightful Caliphs, a move which was popular with the urban Arabs of the kingdom.

Zirid management of the area was overall neglectful as the agricultural economy declined, prompting an increase in banditry among the rural population.The Fatimids sent the Bedouin tribes of Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym to Ifriqiya. The Berber troops defected and the Zirids were defeated, and the land laid waste by the Bedouin. The resulting anarchy devastated the previously flourishing agriculture, and the coastal towns assumed a new importance as conduits for maritime trade and bases for piracy against Christian shipping.

After the loss of Kairouan (1057) the rule of the Zirids was limited to a coastal strip with Mahdia as the capital, while several Bedouin Emirates formed inland. Between 1146 and 1148 the Normans of Sicily conquered all the coastal towns, and in 1152 the last Zirids in Algeria were superseded by the Almohads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb
The Arabs reached the Maghreb in early Umayyad times. Arab expansion and the spread of Islam pushed the development of trans-Saharan trade. While restricted due to the cost and dangers, the trade was highly profitable. Peoples traded in such goods as salt, gold, ivory, and slaves taken from the Sahel regions as well as southern Europeans enslaved by Muslim pirates. Arab control over the Maghreb was quite weak. Various Islamic "heresies", such as the Ibadis and the Shia, adopted by some Berbers, quickly threw off Caliphal control in favour of their interpretation of Islam.

The Arabic language became widespread only later, as a result of the invasion of the Banu Hilal, unleashed by the Fatimids in punishment for their Zirid clients' defection in the 12th century. Throughout this period, the Maghreb most often was divided into three states roughly corresponding to modern Morocco, western Algeria, and eastern Algeria and Tunisia. The region was occasionally briefly unified, as under the Almohads, and briefly under the Hafsids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers
In 1516, the amir of Algiers, Selim b. Teumi, invited the corsair brothers Oruc and Hayreddin Barbarossa to expel the Spaniards. Oruc came to Algiers, ordered the assassination of Selim, and seized the town and ousted the Spanish in the Capture of Algiers (1516). Hayreddin, succeeding Oruc after the latter was killed in battle against the Spaniards in the Fall of Tlemcen (1517), was the founder of the pashaluk, which subsequently became the beylik, of Algeria. Barbarossa lost Algiers in 1524 but regained it with Capture of Algiers (1529), and then formally invited the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to accept sovereignty over the territory and to annex Algiers to the Ottoman Empire.

Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates. In October 1541 in the Algiers expedition, the King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sought to capture the city, but a storm destroyed a great number of his ships, and his army of some 30,000, chiefly made up of Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their Pasha, Hassan.

The city under Ottoman control was enclosed by a wall on all sides, including along the seafront. In this wall, five gates allowed access to the city, with five roads from each gate dividing the city and meeting in front of the Ketchaoua Mosque. In 1556, a citadel was constructed at the highest point in the wall. A major road running north to south divided the city in two: The upper city (al-Gabal, or 'the mountain') which consisted of about fifty small quarters of Andalusian, Jewish, Moorish and Kabyle communities, and the lower city (al-Wata, or 'the plains') which was the administrative, military and commercial centre of the city, mostly inhabited by Turkish dignitaries and other upper-class families.

Formally part of the Ottoman Empire but essentially free from Ottoman control, starting in the 17th century Algiers turned to piracy and ransoming. Due to its location on the periphery of both the Ottoman and European economic spheres, and depending for its existence on a Mediterranean that was increasingly controlled by European shipping, backed by European navies, piracy became the primary economic activity. Repeated attempts were made by various nations to subdue the pirates that disturbed shipping in the western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Iceland. The United States fought two wars (the First and Second Barbary Wars) over Algier attacks on shipping. In 1817, the city was bombarded by a British squadron under Lord Exmouth, assisted by Dutch men-of-war, destroying the corsair fleet harboured in Algiers.

Thormodr

May 27, 2011, 06:28 AM

Looks amazing. I've heard of this game but I've never played it.
When Gamersgate has a sale, I think I'll pick it up. :D

KillCarneyKlansmen

May 27, 2011, 02:33 PM

Great, Awesome Thormodr. I'm Sure BSS will be glad to here that. The game is more developed now. and maybe in a few years I may try and port the game data to VSC#, Mono and /or XNA Game Studio, possibly.

The Almohad Dynasty, (Arabic: al-Muwahhidun) "the monotheists or Unitarians" was a Moroccan Berber-Muslim dynasty founded around 1120 AD, that established a Berber state in the Atlas Mountains of north-western Africa. In 1118, Ibn Tumart began campaigning against the immorality of the Almoravids in enforcing religious values. The Almohads, in his view, sought to restore Islamic Orthodoxy and were therefore highly critical of the Almoravids.

Tumart also declared himself the Mahdi, [Almohads - Al Mahdi] a divinely guided leader, in 1121. Tumart, who had been driven from several other towns for exhibitions of reforming zeal, now took refuge among his own people, the Masmuda, in the Atlas Mountains. It is highly probable that his influence would not have outlived him, if he had not found a lieutenant in Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi, another Berber, from Algeria, who was undoubtedly a soldier and statesman of a high order. Ibn Tumart died in 1128 at the monastery or ribat which he had founded in the Atlas at Tinmel, after suffering a severe defeat by the Almoravids. Between 1130 and his death in 1163, `Abd-el-Mu'min not only rooted out the Murabits, but extended his power over all northern Africa as far as Egypt, becoming amir of Marrakesh in 1149. The Almohads led by Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi, Emir of Marrakesh (1149), between 1130 and his death in 1163 defeated the ruling Almoravids, extendingtheir power over all northern Africa as far as Libya and Al-Andalus, Moorish Iberia (southern Spain), and in 1170 the Almohads transferred their capital to Seville.

The Almohad princes had a longer and more distinguished career than the Murabits (Almoravids). Abu Yaqub Yusuf I (1163–1184), and Ya'qub I al-Mansur (1184-1199), the successors of Abd al-Mumin, were both able men. Initially their government drove many Jewish and Christian subjects to take refuge in the growing Christian states of Portugal, Castile and Aragon. The Almohads, who had taken control of the Almoravids' Maghribi and Andalusian territories by 1147, far surpassed the Almoravids in fundamentalist outlook, and they treated the dhimmis (non-Muslims) harshly. Faced with the choice of either death or conversion, most Jews and Christians emigrated. Many Jews were also forced to convert or to wear identifying clothing so that their religion would be known. A few, like the family of Maimonides, eventually fled east to more tolerant Muslim lands, while most of them went northward to settle in the growing Christian kingdoms

Ultimately they became less fanatical than the Almoravids. At the end of the 12th century, following the Almohads conquest of Al-Andalus, Averroes's political career ended. Averroes's strictly rationalist views which collided with the more orthodox views of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur who therefore eventually banished Averroes, though he had previously appointed him as his personal physician. Averroes was not reinstated until shortly before his death in the year 1198 AD. He devoted the rest of his life (more than 30 years) to his philosophical writings.

Ya'qub's title of "al-Mansur," "The Victorious," was earned by the defeat he inflicted on Alfonso VIII of Castile in the Battle of Alarcos (1195). From the time of Yusuf II, however, the Almohads governed their co-religionists in Iberia and Central North Africa through lieutenants, their dominions outside Morocco being treated as provinces. When their amirs crossed the Straits it was to lead a jihad against the Christians and to return to their capital, Marrakesh.

The growing Christian states in Iberia were becoming too well organized to be overrun by the Muslims, and the Almohads made no permanent advance against them. Almohad dominance of Iberia continued until 1212, when Muhammad III, "al-Nasir" (1199–1214) was defeated at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in the Sierra Morena by an alliance of the Christian princes of Castile, Aragón, Navarre, and Portugal. Nearly all Moorish dominion in Iberia was lost, the great Moorish cities of Córdoba and Seville fell to the Christians in 1236 and 1248 respectively.

The Almohads continued to rule in Africa until the piecemeal loss of territory through the revolt of tribes and districts enabled the rise of their their most effective enemies, the Marinids in 1215. The last of the Almohad line, Idris II, "El Wathiq"' was reduced to Marrakesh. In 1269 a slave murdered Idris II; the Marinids seized Marrakesh, ending the Almohad domination of the Western Maghreb.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankara
In the late 4th century AD, Ancyra became something of an imperial holiday resort. After Constantinople became the East Roman capital, emperors in the 4th and 5th centuries would retire from the humid summer weather on the Bosporus to the drier mountain atmosphere of Ancyra. The city's military as well as logistical significance lasted well into the long Byzantine rule. Although Ancyra temporarily fell into the hands of several Arab Muslim armies numerous times after the 7th century, it remained an important crossroads polis within the Byzantine Empire until the late 11th century. It was also the capital of the powerful Opsician Theme, and after ca. 750 of the Bucellarian Theme.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsikion
The Opsician Theme was a Byzantine theme in NW Asia Minor. Created from the imperial retinue army, the Opsikion was the largest and most prestigious of the early civil military garrison's. Involved in several revolts in the 8th century, it was split in three after c. 750, and lost its former preeminence. It survived as a middle tier theme until after the 4th Crusade. The term Opsikion derives from the Latin Obsequium "retinue", which by the early 7th century came to refer to the unit responsible for escorting the emperor on campaigns. In the 640s, following the disastrous defeats suffered during the first wave of the Muslim conquests, the remains of the field armies were withdrawn to Asia Minor and settled into large districts, called themes (themata). Thus the Opsician theme was the area where the imperial Opsikion was settled, which encompassed all of NW Asia Minor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucellarian_Theme
The Bucellarian theme was established sometime after 743 and before 767 by the Emperor Constantine V (741–775), following the suppression of the revolt of Artabasdos, the Count of the Opsikion. The new civilmilitary province, along with that of the Optimatoi was split off from the Opsikion. The name of the theme derives from the late Roman Bucellarii elite cavalry troops of Gothic or Roman origin, often found as privately hired bodyguard troops. By the early 7th century they formed an elite division in the Opsikion field force, coming under a domestikos before their elevation to a full theme. The strategos of the Bucellarians is attested for the first time in 767. The Bucellarians headquarters were at Ancyra, the former capital of Opsikion commanding some 8,000 troops, belonging to the second tier of strategoi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolia
After the division of the Roman Empire, Anatolia became part of the East Roman, or Byzantine Empire. Byzantine control was challenged by Arab raids starting in the 7th century (see Byzantine–Arab Wars), but in the 9th and 10th century a resurgent Byzantine Empire regained its lost territories and even expanded beyond its traditional borders, into Armenia and Syria. Following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Turks swept across Anatolia and conquered it in its entirety by 1080.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manzikert
The Battle of Manzikert was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near near Lake Van in the far eastern provinces of Turkey bordering Iran and Iraq. The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia, which allowed the Turks to gradually populate Anatolia. The brunt of the battle was borne by the professional soldiers, as large numbers of mercenaries fled early. The fallout from Manzikert was nearly disastrous for the empire, with numerous subsequent civil conflicts and an economic crisis severely weakening the empire's ability to adequately defend its borders. This led to the mass movement of Turks into central Anatolia and by 1080, an area of 30,000 square miles had been lost. It took a decade of internal strife before Alexios I Komnenos (1081 to 1118) brought stability back to the empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_K%C3%B6se_Da%C4%9F
The Battle of Köse Dağ, ending in a decisive Mongol victory. It was fought between the Seljuk Turks and the Mongols in 1243. It was located between Trebizond and Rum in NE Anatolia. Under the leadership of the commander Bayju, the Mongols faced a numerically superior force. Brushing aside an apprehensive notice from his Georgian officer's regarding the size of the Seljuk army, Bayju states that they were counted as nothing to the numbers of their enemies: "the more they are the more glorious it is to win and the more plunder we shall secure". The defeat resulted in a period of turmoil in Anatolia and led directly to the decline and disintegration of the Seljuk state. The Empire of Trebizond became a vassal state of the Mongol empire. Real power over Anatolia was exercised by the Mongols. After a long period of fragmentation, Anatolia was unified by the Ottoman dynasty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolia
In the following century, the Byzantines managed to reassert their control in Western and Northern Anatolia. Control of Anatolia was then split between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, with the Byzantine holdings gradually being reduced. In 1255, the Mongols swept through central and eastern Anatolia, and would remain until 1335. An Ilkhanate garrison was stationed near modern Ankara. By the end of the 14th century, most of Anatolia was controlled by various Anatolian beyliks. The Turkmen Beyliks were under the control of the Mongols, at least nominally, through declining Seljuk Sultans. The Beyliks did not mint coins in the names of their own leaders while they remained under the suzerainty of the Ilkhanids. in 1320's, for it bears the legend "Minted by Osman son of Ertugul". Since the minting of coins was a prerogative accorded in Islamic practice to be a sovereign, it can be considered that Osmanli became
independent of the Mongol Khans. Among the Turkmen leaders the Ottomans emerged as great power under Osman and his son Orhan I. Smyrna was conquered in 1330, and the last Byzantine possession, Philadélphia (modern Alaşehir), fell in 1390. The Anatolian beyliks were in turn absorbed into the rising Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. The Ottomans completed the conquest of the peninsula with the taking of Halicarnassus (Bodrum), in 1517, from the Knights of Saint John.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ankara
The Battle of Ankara or Battle of Angora, fought on July 20, 1402, took place near Ankara between the forces of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I and the Turko-Mongol forces of Timur, ruler of the Timurid Empire. Timur, also known as Tamerlane was the most powerful Central Asian ruler since Genghis Khan, and by long and relentless fighting, sought to rebuild the Mongol Empire of his ancestors. Timur had conquered Georgia and Azerbaijan in 1390, expanding his empire to the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The two powers soon came into direct conflict. Bayezid demanded tribute from one of the Anatolian Beyliks who had pledged loyalty to Timur and threatened to invade. Timur interpreted this action as an insult to himself and in 1400 sacked the Ottoman city of Sebaste. Beyazid was stung into furious action and when Timur invaded Anatolia from the east, Bayezid summoned his forces and confronted Timur's forces near Ankara. The conflict, overall, was the culmination of years of insulting letters exchanged between Timur and Bayezid.

The exact size of the conflicting armies is not known. When Timur invaded Asia Minor, his army of horsemen with no infantry allowed him to move fast through the Turkish Empire, destroying the Empire's defense piece by piece. The battle began with a large-scale attack from the Ottomans, countered by swarms of arrows from the Timurid horse archers. Several thousands were killed and many surrendered to Timur. During the battle the main water supply of both armies was diverted to an off-stream reservoir by Timur, which left the Ottoman army with no water. The final battle took place at Catal hill, which dominated the Çubuk valley. The Ottoman army, both thirsty and tired, was defeated, though Bayezid managed to escape to the nearby mountains with a few hundred horsemen. Timur, though had the mountains surrounded and, heavily outnumbering Bayezid, soon capturing him. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Ottoman army was further weakened by the desertion of the Tatars and Sipahis from the Anatolian beyliks, who left Bayezid and joined Timur's forces.

The battle was a major victory for Timur, and it led to a period of crisis for the Ottoman Empire (the Ottoman Interregnum). This event split the Ottomans into factions since Bayezid's sons were still alive and free after he himself was captured. Most of the Ottoman Turks fled into Europe. The result was a civil war among Bayezid's four sons. This temporary weakening of the Ottomans resulted in the delay of the end of the Byzantine Empire and the eventual Ottoman conquest of the Balkans.However, the Timurid Empire went into terminal decline following Tamerlane's death just three years after the Battle of Ankara, while the Ottoman Empire made a full recovery, and continued to increase in power for several more centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_East_Anglia
The Kingdom of the East Angles, one of the seven traditional members of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and ceased being an independent kingdom by 918, having been subjugated by Alfred the Great of Wessex.

http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/EnglandEastAnglia.htm
The Angles in the region of Norfolk and Suffolk probably gained ascendancy between 475-495 from a possible British territory of Caer Went (formerly the Iceni tribe made famous by Boadecia). Around 575 AD The kingdom of the East Angles was founded as a result of the uniting North and South Folk, from which Norfolk and Suffolk are named.

In the early stages of settlement, the Angles were not totally dominant in the area; there was also a sizable Saxon presence, although evidence supports the fact that many Saxons were settled in this area as foederati before the collapse of Roman rule. The Saxons and the newly-arriving Angles appear to have intermingled and merged even before the British walled town of Venta Icenorum (Caistor-by-Norwich) had been abandoned.

The Angles were skilled in the use of shallow vessels and used the East Anglian rivers as routes into Britain. They easily navigated the Nene, Ouse and Cam valleys and were the first to be colonised. By 500 AD colonisation had reached as far east as Cambridgeshire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Anglia
Much of East Anglia (including parts of Lincolnshire, also, consisted of marshland and bogs until the 17th century, despite the construction of early sea barriers by the Roman Empire. Much of the area is characterised by its flatness, partly consisting of fenland and reclaimed marshland, though much of Suffolk and Norfolk is gently rolling hills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_East_Anglia
During the early 7th century, East Anglia was one of the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, but its power soon waned and over the following centuries it became increasingly dominated by the kingdom of Mercia. In 870 it was conquered by the Danes, who settled there permanently in 879. In 917 the kingdom submitted to Edward the Elder of Wessex and was incorporated into the kingdom of England, becoming an earldom.

East Anglia was settled by the Anglo-Saxons as early as c. 450, earlier than many other regions that were settled. It emerged from the settlement and political consolidation of Angles in the approximate area occupied by the former territory of the Iceni and the Roman civitas, with its centre at Venta Icenorum (Bury St. Edmund). The first kings of East Anglia were pagans. They belonged to the dynasty known as the Wuffings, named after Wuffa, whose name could have been an invention to explain the Wuffing name, which means 'descendants of the wolf'. All the East Anglian kings up to Ælfwald (-749 AD) were Wuffings. The most powerful of its kings was Rædwald, 'the son of Tytil, whose father was Wuffa', according to Bede in 731. For a brief period in the early 7th century, whilst Rædwald ruled, East Anglia was among the most powerful kingdoms in England, probably exercising a widespread hegemony across the eastern part of the country. In 616, Rædwald was strong enough to defeat and kill Æthelfrith of Northumbria at the Battle of the River Idle and install Edwin as king of Northumbria. Bede described him as exercising imperium over the southern English kingdoms. He was more than likely the individual honoured by the sumptuous ship burial at Sutton Hoo. The eminence achieved by East Anglia under Rædwald did not last long, as his successors soon fell victim to the rising power of Mercia.

In 865, East Anglia was invaded by the 'Great Heathen Army' of the Danes, which occupied winter quarters and secured horses before departing for Northumbria. The Danes returned to East Anglia in 869, wintering at Thetford before being attacked by the forces of Edmund of East Anglia, who was defeated and killed. Edmund was regarded as a martyr for the Christian faith and became a popular saint. Having seized control of the kingdom, the Danes installed puppet-kings to govern on their behalf while they resumed their campaigns against Mercia and Wessex. Reinforcement's by a fresh army of Danes in 871 and the settlement of portions of there combined army in Northumbria and Mercia remained active until their defeat. In 878 the last portion of the army to remain active was defeated by King Alfred the Great of Wessex and they withdrew from his kingdom after making a peace treaty, in 879. the Danes returned to East Anglia under the leadership of King Guthrum who took over direct charge of the kingdom from their appointees, sharing out land among themselves and settling. In addition to the traditional territory of East Anglia, their kingdom probably included Essex, and a portion of Wessex which had come under Danish control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelred_I_of_East_Anglia
Æthelred I was a semi-historical eighth-century king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. It is thought that he ruled for some time between 760 and 790 and held East Anglia during the overlordship of Offa of Mercia. He succeeded three East Anglian kings who ruled together after c.649 - Hun, Beorna and Alberht.

There is no coinage known for Æthelred and the only historical sources that name him date from after the Norman conquest of England, including the Lives of St Æthelberht and the regnal lists of William of Malmesbury. In the legendary narratives of Saint Æthelberht, Æthelred and his queen (who was possibly named Leofruna) both dwelt at Beodricesworth, or modern day Bury St. Edmunds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_the_Martyr
In the year 869, the Danes who had wintered at York, marched through Mercia into East Anglia and took up their quarters at Thetford. Edmund engaged them fiercely in battle, but the Danes under their leaders Ubbe Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless had the victory, killing King Edmund.

Contemporary evidence for King Edmund's existence is largely confined to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Edmund is venerated as a saint and a martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. It is said that his body was ultimately interred at Beadoriceworth (modern Bury St Edmunds), where pilgrims were encouraged to visit his shrine. By the 12th century, the church had been enlarged. His popularity with the Anglo-Norman nobility helped justify their claims of continuity with pre-Norman traditions: a banner of his arms was carried at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Edmund's popularity among the English nobility was lasting. It is known that his banner was borne in the Irish expedition of the Anglo-Normans and also when Caerlaverock Castle was taken in 1300.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahri_dynasty
The Bahri dynasty or Bahriyya Mamluks (al-Mamalik al-Bahariyya) was a Mamluk dynasty of mostly Kipchak Turkic origin that ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1382 when they were succeeded by the Burji dynasty, another group of Mamluks. Their name means 'of the sea', referring to the location of their original residence in the Nile (Bahr al-Nil), Cairo. The Mamluks formed one of the most powerful and wealthiest empires of the time, lasting from 1250 to 1517. In 1250, when the Ayyubid sultan as-Salih Ayyub died, the Mamluks he had owned as slaves murdered his son and heir Turanshah, and Shajar al-Durr the widow of as-Salih became the Sultana of Egypt. She married the Atabeg (commander in chief) Emir Aybak and abdicated, Aybak becoming Sultan. He ruled from 1250 to 1257. The Mamluks consolidated their power in ten years and eventually established the Bahri dynasty. They were helped by the Mongols' sack of Baghdad in 1258, which effectively destroyed the Abbasid caliphate. Cairo became more prominent as a result and remained a Mamluk capital thereafter.The Mamluks were powerful cavalry warriors mixing the practices of the Turkic steppe peoples from which they were drawn and the organizational and technological sophistication of the Egyptians and Arabs. In 1260 the Mamluks defeated a Mongol army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in modern-day Israel and eventually forced the invaders to retreat to the area of modern-day Iraq.

On a general level, the military during the Bahri dynasty can be divided into several aspects
1.Mamluks : the core of both the political and military, these slave soldiers were further divided into Khassaki (comparable to imperial guards), Royal Mamluks ( Mamluks directly under the command of the Sultan) and regular Mamluks (usually assigned to local Amirs).
2.Al-Halqa : the primarily free born professional forces, they are also directly under the sultan's command.
3.Wafidiyya : These are Turks and Mongols that migrated to the dynasty's border after the Mongol invasion, typically given land grants in exchange for military service, they are well regarded forces.
4.Other levies : Primarily Bedouin tribes, but also on different occasions also different groups of Turkomans and other settled Arabs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burji_dynasty
The Burji dynasty ruled Egypt from 1382 until 1517. It proved especially turbulent, with short-lived sultans. Political power-plays often became important in designating a new sultan Barkuk became an enemy of Timur [Tamerlane] after slaying one of Timur's envoys. Timur threatened to invade Syria, but Barkuk died in 1399; Bayezid I then invaded Syria, but came into conflict with Timur, who took Aleppo and other towns in 1400. Syria was regained by sultan Faraj when Timur died in 1405, but Faraj continually faced rebellions from the emirs there and he was forced to abdicate in 1412.In 1517 the Ottoman Turks and their sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluks with the capture of Cairo on January 20. The centre of power transferred from Cairo to Istanbul. However, the Ottoman Empire retained the Mamluks as an Egyptian ruling class and the Mamluks and the Burji family succeeded in regaining much of their influence, but remained technical vassals of the Ottomans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk_Sultanate_%28Cairo%29
The Mamluk Sultanate was a regime composed of mamluks who ruled Egypt from the mid-13th century to the early 16th century. By the time of the fall of the Ayyubids, most Mamluks were Arabs and Kipchak Turks. Mamluk regiments constituted the backbone of the late Ayyubid military. Each sultan and high-ranking amir had his private corps, and the sultan as-Salih Ayyub (r. 1240-1249) had especially relied on this means to maintaining power. His mamluks, numbering between 800 and 1,000 horsemen, were called the Bahris, after the Arabic word bahr, meaning sea or large river, because their barracks were located on the island of Rawda in the Nile. They were mostly drawn from among the Kipchak Turks who controlled the steppes north of the Black Sea.

KillCarneyKlansmen

May 29, 2011, 05:13 AM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Aragonese_Empire_1443.svg/250px-Aragonese_Empire_1443.svg.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Localizaci%C3%B3n_de_Arag%C3%B3n.svg/250px-Localizaci%C3%B3n_de_Arag%C3%B3n.svg.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Kingdom_of_Aragon%2C_c._1250.jpg/250px-Kingdom_of_Aragon%2C_c._1250.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdom_of_Aragon,_c._1250.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Flag_of_Aragon.svg/150px-Flag_of_Aragon.svg.png
Aragon at its greatest extent, The Provence of Aragon, the Kingdom of Aragon c. 1250, Aragon Flag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Aragon
This kingdom was originally a Frankish feudal county around the city of Jaca, which in the first half of the 8th century became a vassal state of the kingdom of Pamplona (later Navarre), its own dynasty of counts ending without male heir in 922.

On the death of Sancho III of Navarre in 1035, the Kingdom of Navarre was divided in to three parts: (1) Navarre and the Basque country, (2) Castile and (3) Sobrarbe, Ribagorza and Aragon. As the most important Christian monarch in Iberia and the King of All Spain, each of his three lands were converted into a Kingdom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragon
Before Aragon came into being as a self-proclaimed kingdom in 1035 A.D., the northern counties of Jaca, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza were all independent marches and Frankish feudal fiefs. In a bid to stem Frankish and Moorish invasions, a northern alliance of the counties of Aragon, Sobrarbe, Ribagorza, and the duchy of Castile united under the Kingdom of Pamplona (later Navarre). After King Sancho's death, the kingdom was divided between his sons. Ramiro I was initially named king of Aragon in 1035; later, after his brother Gonzalo's death, he was also named king of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in 1044. The new kingdom grew quickly, conquering territories from the moorish kingdoms to the south. Huesca was taken in 1096 and Zaragoza in 1118.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Aragon
Formally, the political center of the Crown of Aragon was Zaragoza where kings were crowned in the La Seo Cathedral. Leading economic centres of the Crown of Aragon were the cities of Barcelona and Valencia. Finally, Palma (Majorca) was an additional important city and seaport.

The Crown of Aragon eventually included the Kingdom of Aragon, the County of Barcelona, the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Majorca, Sicily, Malta, the Kingdom of Naples and Sardinia. For brief periods the Crown of Aragon also controlled Montpellier, Provence, Corsica, the Duchy of Neopatria in Latin Greece and the Duchy of Athens.

The countries that are today known as Spain and Portugal spent the Middle Ages after 722 in an intermittent struggle called the Reconquista. This struggle pitted the northern Christian kingdoms against the Islamic taifa petty kingdoms of the South and against each other.

In the Late Middle Ages, the expansion of the Aragonese Crown southwards met with the Castilian advance eastward in the region of Murcia. Afterward, the Aragonese Crown focused on the Mediterranean, acting as far as Greece and Barbary, whereas Portugal, which completed its Reconquista in 1272, focused on the Atlantic Ocean. Mercenaries from the territories in the Crown, known as almogàvers participated in the creation of this Mediterranean "empire", and later found employment in countries all across southern Europe.

The Crown of Aragon has been considered by some as an empire which ruled in the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, with the power to set rules over the entire sea (for instance, the Llibre del Consolat del Mar or Book of the Consulate of the Sea, written in Catalan, is one of the oldest compilation of maritime laws in the world). It was indeed, at its height, one of the major powers in Europe.

The Crown of Aragon is often described as being more like a confederacy than a centralized kingdom, let alone an empire. Nor did official documents ever refer to it as an empire (Imperium or any cognate word); instead, it was considered a dynastic union of autonomous kingdoms.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Acceso_a_la_fortaleza_de_Jaca.jpg/220px-Acceso_a_la_fortaleza_de_Jaca.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Gobierno_Pol%C3%ADtico_de_Arag%C3%B3n.jpg/220px-Gobierno_Pol%C3%ADtico_de_Arag%C3%B3n.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Petronila_Ramon_Berenguer.jpg/220px-Petronila_Ramon_Berenguer.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Pirineos_081.jpg/280px-Pirineos_081.jpg
Castle of San Pedro in Jaca, Allegorical Woodcut c. 1820, 16th century painting of the Dynastic Union, Ordesa valley in the Aragonese Pyrenees

KillCarneyKlansmen

May 29, 2011, 04:11 PM

Other Kingdom Quests in Italics, no particular order
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Almoravid-empire-en.svg/300px-Almoravid-empire-en.svg.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Almoravids_Sevilla_Spain_1116.jpg/220px-Almoravids_Sevilla_Spain_1116.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Almoravids1120.png/250px-Almoravids1120.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Grande_mosqu%C3%A9e_Alger.jpg/200px-Grande_mosqu%C3%A9e_Alger.jpg
Almoravid dynasty, Coin Almoravids Sevilla 1116, Almoravid Empire 1120, the Great Mosque of Algiers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almoravid
The Almoravids were a Berber-Muslim dynasty of North Africa, it is affiliated to the Berber tribes of Sanhaja and Lamtuna. From the 11th century to the 12th century, their empire was extended over present-day Morocco, Mauritania, southern Spain and Portugal, western present-day Algeria and a part of what is now Mali. At its greatest extent, the empire stretched 3,000 kilometres north to south. Almoravids built the city of Marrakesh and made it their capital city which became then one of the most influential centers of power in Africa and the Mediterranean region.

When the Almoravids began their political rise, the Kingdom of Fez (Morocco's first name) of the Idrisid dynasty was split into a series of small emirates located mainly north of the country, and headed by relatives of the royal family. According to French historian Bernard Lugan and others, the lure of wealth from trade in the South (Sahara) and marketed to the North (the West) attracted various tribes to crossroads city such as Marrakech, which become the capital of various dynasties, especially those from the South. Almoravid unity also protected other tribes from the domination of the Zenata tribes.

About the year 1040 one of their chiefs, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, made the pilgrimage to Makkah. On his way home, he attended the teachers of the mosque at the university of Al-Qayrawan, today's Kairouan in Tunisia; the first Arab-Muslim city in North Africa, who soon learnt from him that his people knew little of the religion they were supposed to profess, and that though his will was good, his own ignorance was great. Yahya was provided with a missionary, Abdallah ibn Yasin, a zealous partisan of the Malikis, one of the four Madhhab, Sunni schools of Islam. In the Saharan regions his influence spread. His creed was mainly characterized by a rigid formalism and a strict adherence to the dictates of the Qur'an, and the Orthodox tradition.

Abdallah ibn Yasin imposed a penitential scourging on all converts as a purification, and enforced a regular system of discipline for every breach of the law, including the chiefs themselves. Under such directions, the Almoravids were brought into excellent order. Their first military leader, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, gave them a good military organization. Their main force was infantry, armed with javelins in the front ranks and pikes behind, which formed into a phalanx; it was supported by camelmen and horsemen on the flanks.

There has been a belief by some that the Almoravids conquered the Ghana Empire sometime around 1075 AD. According to Arab tradition, the ensuing war pushed Ghana over the edge, ending the kingdom's position as a commercial and military power by 1100, as it collapsed into tribal groups and chieftaincies, some of which later assimilated into the Almoravids while others founded the Mali Empire. However, the Almoravid religious influence was gradual and not heavily involved in military strife, as Almoravids increased in power by marrying among the nation's nobility.

In 1086 Yusuf ibn Tashfin was invited by the taifa Muslim princes of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) to defend them against Alfonso VI, King of León and Castile. In that year, Yusuf ibn Tashfin crossed the straits to Algeciras, inflicted a severe defeat on the Christians at the Battle of az-Zallaqah (Battle of Sagrajas). When he returned to Iberia in 1090, it was avowedly for the purpose of deposing the Muslim princes, and annexing their states. He had in his favour the mass of the inhabitants, who had been worn out by the oppressive taxation imposed by their spend-thrift rulers. By 1094, he had removed them all, except for the one at Zaragoza; and though he regained little from the Christians except Valencia, he re-united the Muslim power, and gave a check to the reconquest of the country by the Christians.

The Almoravid power was at its height at Yusuf's death, and the Moorish empire then included all North-West Africa as far as Algiers, and all of Iberia south of the Tagus, with the east coast as far as the mouth of the Ebro, and included the Balearic Islands. Iberia was again invaded by Christian forces in 1119 and 1121, the tide had turned on tht Almoravids, the French assisted the Aragonese to recover Zaragoza, and Ali ibn Yusuf was defeated by Alfonso VII of León, and in the Battle of Ourique (1139). The empire fell to pieces under the combined action of his Christian foes in Iberia and the agitation of Almohads (the Muwahhids) in Morocco. After Ali ibn Yusuf's death in 1143, his son Tashfin ibn Ali lost ground rapidly before the Almohads, and in 1146 he was killed attempting to escape after a defeat near Oran. His two successors were Ibrahim ibn Tashfin and Is'haq ibn Ali, who's reigns were short. The conquest of the city of Marrakech by the Almohads in 1147 marked the fall of the dynasty, though fragments of the Almoravids (the Banu Ghaniya), continued to struggle in the Balearic Islands, and finally in Tunisia.

[Surnames name used for the descendants of the Moors - Morabito, Murabito and Mirabito of Sicily, the Aeolian Islands and southern
Calabria in Italy. Also, Mourabit, Morabit, Murabit or Morabet in modern-day Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Mauritania]

Abaddon

May 29, 2011, 04:17 PM

I don't really understand.. why are you posting all this information?

KillCarneyKlansmen

May 29, 2011, 04:30 PM

Other Kingdom Quests in Italics, no particular order
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Maghreb_%28orthographic_projection%29.svg/300px-Maghreb_%28orthographic_projection%29.svg.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Guillaume_Delisle_North_West_Africa_1707.jpg/220px-Guillaume_Delisle_North_West_Africa_1707.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Algiers_coast.jpg/260px-Algiers_coast.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Kairouan_Mosque_Courtyard.jpg/220px-Kairouan_Mosque_Courtyard.jpg
The Magreb, NW Africa 1707, The Algerian Coast, The 1st Mosque built in the Mahgreb Kairouan Tunisia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb

The Arabs reached the Maghreb in early Umayyad times. Arab expansion and the spread of Islam pushed the development of trans-Saharan trade. While restricted due to the cost and dangers, the trade was highly profitable. Peoples traded in such goods as salt, gold, ivory, and slaves taken from the Sahel regions as well as southern Europeans enslaved by Muslim pirates. Arab control over the Maghreb was quite weak. Various Islamic "heresies", such as the Ibadis and the Shia, adopted by some Berbers, quickly threw off Caliphal control in favour of their interpretation of Islam.

The Arabic language became widespread only later, as a result of the invasion of the Banu Hilal, unleashed by the Fatimids in punishment for their Zirid clients' defection in the 12th century. Throughout this period, the Maghreb most often was divided into three states roughly corresponding to modern Morocco, western Algeria, and eastern Algeria and Tunisia. The region was occasionally briefly unified, as under the Almohads, and briefly under the Hafsids.

Various other influences are also prominent throughout the Maghreb. In northern coastal towns, in particular, several waves of European immigrants have influenced the population in the Medieval era. Most notable were the moriscos and muladies, that are, indigenous Spaniards who had earlier converted to the Muslim faith and were fleeing, together with ethnic Arab and Berber Muslims, from the Spanish Catholic Reconquista. Other European contributions included French, Italians, and others captured by the corsairs.

Historically the Maghreb was home to significant Jewish communities called Maghrebim who predated the 7th century introduction and conversion of the region to Islam.Later Spanish Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish Catholic Inquisition, established a presence in North Africa, chiefly in the urban trading centers. They have contributed to the wider population through conversion and assimilation. Among West Asians are Turks who came over with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. A large Turkish descended population exists, particularly in Tunisia and Algeria. Sub-Saharan Africans joined the population mix during centuries of trans-Saharan trade. Traders and slaves went to the Maghreb from the Sahel region. On the Saharan southern edge of the Maghreb are small communities of black populations, sometimes called Haratine.

During the 7th century, the region's peoples began their nearly total conversion to Islam. There is a small but thriving Jewish community, as well as a small Christian community. Most Muslims follow the Sunni Maliki school. Small Ibadi communities remain in some areas. A strong tradition of venerating marabouts and saints' tombs is found throughout regions inhabited by Berbers. Any map of the region demonstrates the tradition by the proliferation of "Sidi"s, showing places named after the marabouts. Like some other religious traditions, this has substantially decreased over the 20th century. A network of zaouias traditionally helped proliferate basic literacy and knowledge of Islam in rural regions.

In the 10th century, as the social and political environment in Baghdad became increasingly hostile to Jews, many Jewish traders emigrated to the Maghreb, especially Tunisia. Over the following two or three centuries, such Jewish traders became known as the Maghribis, a distinctive social group who traveled throughout the Mediterranean World. They passed this identification on from father to son. Their tight-knit pan-Maghreb community had the ability to use social sanctions as a credible alternative to legal recourse, which was anyway weak at the time. This unique institutional alternative permitted the Maghribis to very successfully participate in Mediterranean trade.

KillCarneyKlansmen

May 29, 2011, 04:51 PM

Well, I need them for my KoH Kingdom Quests, some of this info I'll be adding to it. This is a CIV Site isn't it? If you googled some of the keywords (like Troy), you would also see more than a few references to my posts, if you digged deep enough. Civilization Gamers and Devlopers can also add this info to there games and mods. This Information is also Educational.

http://www.educationarcade.org/node/66
Seemingly overnight, educational gaming has gone from something to be snickered at to a buzzword in education and industry. Maybe it’s the widespread use of gaming for military training, maybe it’s increasing graphical realism, or maybe it’s that so many young teachers grew up playing games. Today, the Sloan Foundation’s Virtual University, the ICT’s military simulations, or the MIT-Microsoft Games-to-Teach Project are beginning to explore computer games designed specifically for classroom use.

http://web.mit.edu/is/isnews/v18/n03/180301.html
Games-to-Teach Project in MIT's Comparative Media Studies (CMS) program. Games-to-Teach began two years ago as an iCampus project between MIT and Microsoft Corporation, with a goal of developing sophisticated video games in math, science, engineering, and the humanities.

http://planetcivilization.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=22
Many teachers and academics have realized that certain computer games such as Civilization have educational value. Civilization enables students who may not like text books to get a better grasp of history. As a result of recent educational attention for Civilization, Firaxis has opened a section on their website catered towards teachers. "Sid Meier's Civilization III, in particular, is now widely being used to teach students about history, geography, politics.

http://www.firaxis.com/community/teacher.php
Over the past several years, leading educators have begun a global discussion about the efficacy of using off-the-shelf consumer games to educate students. Teachers have found that some games in particular have a remarkable ability to keep students engaged and teach them at the same time. The basic requirements for a "stealth" teaching game is that it be fun, that in order to succeed in the game the student needs to learn about "real world" topics.

“Will computers change the way we learn? We answer “yes”. Video games create new social and cultural worlds, worlds that help people learn by integrating thinking, social interaction, and technology … virtual worlds are powerful contexts for learning. “ — Schaffer, Squire, Halverson, Gee (2004)

2,882 Views 5/30/11

Abaddon

May 30, 2011, 05:49 AM

English isn't your first language I am guessing?

KillCarneyKlansmen

May 30, 2011, 01:20 PM

No, I live in So. Cal. and am proficient at English. Although CIV was never designed to be an educational game, it certainly could be expanded to, and has been used to, in some respects. For instance, learning to code the game, history, virtual world simulation. A twist on that, might be asking questions of the user to gain culture or research points. Succesfully answering some of those questions may help you to prevent plague, famine culture shifts, rebellion, prevent wars, increase trade, provide quests, spy missions, gain strategic or tactical military advantages, etc ..

http://scholarshipamerica.org/news_items/2k_announcement.php
Scholarship America®, the nation’s leading nonprofit scholarship and educational support organization, will be the recipient of a portion of $250,000 being donated to education-based charities by 2K Games, developer of the popular Sid Meier’s Civilization series – based on the percentage of votes awarded by Sid Meier’s Civilization V purchasers.

Ethnologically Armenians are classified as Caucasoid, and linguistically as Indo-European. According to some authorities, their ancestors include the aboriginal people of the region; the Chaldeans, who occupied it late in the 2nd millennium BC; and later invaders. The valley of the Araxes (now Aras) River and the plateau around Van Gölü (Lake Van) was a dominion, from about 1270 to 850 BC, of a kingdom, sometimes called Van, but known in nearby Assyria as Urartu (Hebrew Ararat). The name Armenia first appeared in the Behistun inscription of Darius I, king of Persia about 521 BC. In 612 BC, Armenia was conquered by Media, which ruled it until 549.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia
Recent archeological studies have found the earliest leather shoe, skirt, and wine-producing facility in Armenia, dated to about 4000 B.C. This points to an advanced early civilization In the Bronze Age; several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire (at the height of its power), Mitanni (South-Western historical Armenia), and Hayasa-Azzi (1500–1200 BC). The Nairi people (12th to 9th centuries BC) and the Kingdom of Urartu (1000–600 BC) successivel established their sovereignty over the Armenian Highland. Each of the aforementioned nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Around 600 BC, the Kingdom of Armenia was established under the Orontid Dynasty. The kingdom reached its height between 95 and 66 BC under Tigranes the Great, becoming one of the most powerful kingdoms of its time within the region.

Historically Armenia was practiced a Mazdean branch of Zoroastrianism, focused on the worship of Mihr (the Avestan Mithra). Christianity spread into the country as early as AD 40. King Tiridates III (AD 238–314) made Christianity the state religion in AD 301, becoming the first officially Christian state, ten years before the Roman Empire. After the fall of the Armenian kingdom in AD 428, most of Armenia was incorporated as a marzpanate within the Sassanid Empire. Following an Armenian rebellion in AD 451, Christian Armenians maintained their religious freedom, while Armenia gained autonomy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia
Between 428–636, Armenia emerged as the Emirate of Armenia, an autonomous principality within the Arabic Empire, reuniting Armenian
lands previously taken by the Byzantine Empire as well. The principality was ruled by the Prince of Armenia, recognised by the Caliph and the Byzantine Emperor. It was part of the administrative division/emirate Arminiyya created by the Arabs, which also included parts of Georgia and Caucasian Albania. The Principality of Armenia lasted until 884, when it regained its independence from the weakened Arabic Empire.The re-emergent Armenian kingdom was ruled by the Bagratuni dynasty, and lasted until 1045. In time, several areas of the Bagratid Armenia separated as independent kingdoms and principalities such as the Kingdom of Vaspurakan ruled by the House of Artsruni, while still recognizing the supremacy of the Bagratid kings. The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, 1199-1375.

In 1045, the Byzantine Empire conquered Bagratid Armenia. Soon, the other Armenian states fell under Byzantine control as well. The Byzantine rule was short lived, as in 1071 Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines and conquered Armenia at the Battle of Manzikert, establishing the Seljuk Empire. To escape death or servitude at the hands of those who had assassinated his relative, Gagik II, King of Ani, an Armenian named Roupen went with some of his countrymen into the gorges of the Taurus Mountains and then into Tarsus of Cilicia. The Byzantine governor of the palace gave them shelter where the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was eventually established.

Ok, here is the last version of KCKultimateKoH. I can't guarantee it's total without error, there maybe a few slight, I haven't fully tested it. But it is a very stable version. There will probably be 1 patch - KCKultimateKoH_v2.1. To Find and fix any errors. This will be the last of my Mods for Knights of Honor. If anyone wants to Pick up where I left off or use my mod as a base mod, your more than welcome to. The Texts and quests certainly can be expanded. I'm leaving the previous version up, plus my work with CAB files. [See 1st page for download] Good Knight everyone, Merry Xmas, Happy Birthday, Vista la Asta. :goodjob:

Wyxzzer

Feb 08, 2012, 01:38 PM

Hi, i wanna ask one question, where can i find a modification of KOH multiplayer europe map?

KillCarneyKlansmen

Feb 09, 2012, 11:33 PM

I did a little work, support on my mod for quick battle ... Even though the game is fun ... its almost exceeded its useful life ... so won't be doing anything further to it. Changing Multiplatyer further ... would require some mapping, plus a few other things; just aint gonna do it. Try Black Sea Studio's Forum -- Links on the 1st page ... There still at it over there -> Good Luck.